Moldova Archives

Moldovan Journalists Win Free Speech Case at European Court

Posted on October 12, 2021January 26, 2023 by BIRD

The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday ruled in favour of RISE Moldova after the investigative media outlet was sued for defamation for an article alleging that there was offshore financing from Russia of the Moldovan Socialist Party’s presidential election campaign in 2016.

“The European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been a violation of Article 10 [freedom of expression] of the European Convention on Human Rights,” the court said in a statement.

The court also awarded the plaintiffs 3,800 euros in damages, costs and expenses.

“Today’s decision is a strong encouragement for Moldovan journalists and investigative reporters to do their job honestly and without fear of frequent pressure from corrupt politicians, but also from intimidation from businessmen connected to public money,” the director of RISE Moldova, Iurie Sanduta, told BIRN.

According to the RISE Moldova investigation called ‘Dodon’s Bahamas Money’, the Socialist Party allegedly benefited from money coming from a secretive business with an offshore company in the Bahamas, which was connected to the Russian Federation.

The company allegedly transferred over 30 million Moldovan lei (about 1.5 million euros) to the party.

The money entered Moldova a few months before the 2016 presidential election through Exclusiv Media. Exclusiv Media is owned by Corneliu Furculita, a Socialist MP and childhood friend of Igor Dodon, who was running as the Socialist candidate in the election.

Based on loan agreements, millions of Moldovan lei flowed from the company to several who were members of the Socialist Party or close to it. The money was used to sponsor Dodon’s presidential campaign.

RISE Moldova’s journalists were sued by both Exclusiv Media and the Socialist Party back in November 2016.

The first-instance court ruled in favour of Exclusiv Media and the Socialists in December 2017, but RISE Moldova challenged the decision at the Moldovan Court of Appeal.

However, both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Justice rejected their legal challenges, so RISE Moldova’s director Sanduta filed a complaint to the European rights court in January 2019.

“Moldovan judges issued a decision in favour of Dodon, who had already become president. We decided to go to the ECHR and fight for freedom of expression because our investigation had a lot of evidence that exactly proved the facts described in the journalistic investigation,” added Iurie Sanduta.

In March 2020, RISE Moldova eventually won its domestic legal battle against Exclusiv Media at the Chisinau District Court.

Attacks on Moldovan Journalists Increased in 2020, Report Says

Posted on June 9, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

The number of attacks on journalists and media representatives in Moldova increased significantly in 2020, according to a media report on such attacks in the post-Soviet space by Justice for Journalists, an NGO based in London.

The study identified 68 attacks or threats against professional and civilian media workers and editorial offices of print and online publications in Moldova in 2020.

About 49 of the 68 attacks were non-physical, however, some in cyberspace, including campaigns to discredit or illegally obstruct journalists and deny access to information, or other forms of harassment, intimidation and pressure on social networks. Non-physical attacks included defamation and libel cases against the media or media personnel.

Four of the five physical attacks on journalists recorded in 2020 were initiated by the State Guard and Protection Service, the police, or the Russian military stationed in the breakaway region of Transnistria.

“Three out of five cases of physical attacks on media workers involved physical attacks and threats to the life, freedom and health of journalists who covered the protests [that year],” the report said.

“In 2020, the media and journalists were not adequately protected by current legislation [of Moldova]. Even though media outlets are no longer closed in Moldova, and the print media are no longer seized, illegal sanctions and intimidation of journalists remain routine,” the study said.

The number of incidents against journalists increased by almost 20 per cent compared to 59 registered in 2019, according to Justice for Journalists.

All the cases are shown on the Media Risk Map, which covers the period from 2017 onwards. Most attacks took place during protests and important political events in 2020, many of them related to the presidential electoral campaign.

The report includes statistical data for daily monitoring of attacks on media employees in 12 post-Soviet countries.

Russian Peacekeepers Detain Moldovan Journalists Near Transnistria

Posted on February 10, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Two Moldovan journalists working for the TV8 television station, Viorica Tataru and Andrei Captarenco, were stopped on Tuesday by Russian and Transnistrian separatist peacekeeping troops at the Gura Bacului checkpoint and ordered to erase all the footage they had filmed and surrender their technical equipment.

“We are here at the peacekeepers’ post. We have been detained, the car has been seized, and we cannot get out of the vehicle. They told us we have to hand them the material we filmed, otherwise we can’t get out of here,” Tataru told BIRN by telephone.

She added that four armed men with a Russian flag emblem on their uniforms were guarding their car.

She said they had contacted the police and representatives of the Joint Control Commission, a combined military command structure involving Moldova, Transnistria and Russia that has operated in the separatist-controlled territory since the war in the country in 1992.

“We’ve been waiting for the police for an hour. I also called the Joint Control Commission. They said they would come, but so far no one has come,” Tataru said.

The two journalists have been filming a weekly TV show for more than a year in villages that are controlled by Moldova but are located on the eastern bank of the Dniester river – in an area that is mostly controlled by the breakaway Transnistrian authorities.

To reach the villages, the journalists have to pass through the Gura Bacului checkpoint.

Transnistria does not allow its checkpoints to be filmed or photographed.

This is not the first time that the two Moldovan journalists have accused the Russian and Transnistrian peacekeepers of targeting them.

In July 2020, peacekeeping troops chased them into Moldovan controlled-territory and asked them to surrender footage they shot on Moldovan soil.

The Transnistrian ‘frozen conflict’ has seen no armed violence between government forces and Russian-backed separatists since 1992. The de facto border has remained open, and populations on both sides of the river have come to depend on each other economically.

Concern over Moldova Cyber Security As Election Looms

Posted on October 28, 2020January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

As the campaign for Moldova’s presidential election intensifies, so too does the rate of cyberattacks on state institutions in the former Soviet republic, torn between Russia and the West.

But while Moldova’s Intelligence and Security Service, SIS, says it is working to disrupt cyberattacks, critics say more needs to be done to confront the scourge of fake news and disinformation.

“Moldova does not have a strategy to tackle propaganda, nor clear policies for the protection of the information space,” said Cornelia Cozonac, head of the Centre for Investigative Journalism in Moldova.

“Moldovan politicians are not even trying to take over similar research-based guidelines from the Baltic States, for example.”

Individual hackers

In an interview for Moldpres, SIS director Alexandr Esaulenco said that election campaigns in Moldova frequently brought an “intensification” of cyberattacks on state bodies handling the electoral process.

In written comments to BIRN, the SIS described four types of attacks since 2015 – denial of service, or DDOS, phishing via state e-mail, brute-force attacks trying to gain access to government information systems and the hijacking of official web pages.

“These activities aim to stop or hinder the conduct of the electoral process, but in all these cases, we act proactively to prevent their success,” Esaulenco told Moldpres.

In an interview with tribuna.md in October, Sergiu Popovici, the director of the government Information Technology and Cyber Security Service, STISC, said most attacks were the work of individual hackers, “who try out their criminal talent on randomly selected electoral processes.”

‘Real propaganda’

Esaulenco, a 43-year-old major general, previously worked as a security adviser to Moldova’s pro-Russian president, Igor Dodon.

A person scrolls the screen of a mobile phone while loading information on how to counter ‘fake news’ in New Delhi, India, May 2, 2019. Photo: EPA/Harish Tyagi

Dodon is bidding for a second term in next month’s election but faces a strong challenge from pro-European candidate Maia Sandu.

The SIS press office told BIRN that, while it confronts the threat of cyberattacks, its future focus would be more on disinformation and propaganda.

Torn between integrating with the West or remaining in Russia’s orbit, Moldova has proven particularly vulnerable to outside propaganda, particularly against NATO, the European Union and the international community in general.

The SIS said that during the COVID-19 state-of-emergency in the spring, it closed some 61 websites and news portals deemed to be spreading propaganda and fake news regarding the pandemic.

But Petru Macovei, executive director of the Independent Press Association, API, said SIS did not go far enough.

“It was a facade with the closure of those sites, to justify themselves that their activity was not in vain during the state of emergency caused by the pandemic,” Macovei told BIRN. “Indeed, it was neither effective nor sufficient.”

These “were selective decisions,” he said, “because the real propaganda was not affected by that SIS measure.”

By ‘real propaganda,’ many experts in Moldova mean Russian media outlets that broadcast in Moldova with a distinctively anti-Western tone.

“Russian media in Moldova like Komsomolskaya Pravda or Sputnik every day have at least one anti-EU and NATO news and some about Ukraine,” said Cozonac.

Strategy lacking

Elena Marzac, executive director of the Information and Documentation Centre on NATO, IDC NATO, said that COVID-19 crisis and the economic fallout were “gradually turning into a security crisis.”

The executive director of the IDC NATO in Moldova, Elena Marzac. Photo: Facebook

“Besides classic disinformation there are also the cyberattacks, both elements of hybrid warfare,” Marzac told BIRN.

“Also, the narratives circulating in the international space, but also the regional and national one are strongly influenced by geopolitics, and the main promoting actors in that sense are China and Russia.”

Moldova has made some progress towards establishing the legal basis for a better information security strategy, but experts agree there is still much to be done.

“It is too early to talk about the existence in Moldova of an integrated and effective national mechanism for preventing and combating cybersecurity incidents and cybercrime,” said Marzac.

COVID-19 Provides New Material for Russian Anti-EU Disinformation

Posted on September 22, 2020January 26, 2023 by BIRD

Russian disinformation in the Western Balkans and ‘Eastern Partnership’ countries has taken “a new turn” with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, portraying the European Union as overwhelmed and unable to support its neighbours, Romanian expert Nicolae Tibrigan told BIRN in an interview.

Tibrigan, a researcher at the Bucharest-based Laboratory for the Analysis of Informational Warfare and Strategic Communication, LARICS, said Russian anti-Western propaganda had fuelled conspiracy theories about the origins of the novel coronavirus and criticism of the EU’s efforts to support the countries of the Western Balkans and six former Soviet republics in the so-called Eastern Partnership.

“One of the main goals of pro-Kremlin disinformation in the two regions is to create and deepen mistrust between the EU and its partners,” Tibrigan told BIRN in an email interview.

“In the context of the health crisis, these disinformation efforts are taking a new turn, in which the EU is systematically portrayed as overwhelmed by the situation and unable to respond to the needs and calls of its eastern neighbours.”

Russia trying to undermine EU via Balkans

Giving the example of a report by Russian state-controlled agency Sputnik from January suggesting the virus originated in a NATO or US laboratory, Tibrigan said that “online sources with ‘alternative content’ and social networks propagated these narratives as indisputable facts, each time adapting the message to the internal context of each state.”

“Local actors were encouraged by the pro-Kremlin media to multiply the message to contribute to a real regional campaign of misinformation, propaganda and spread of conspiracy theories on the health crisis: secret laboratories explain coronavirus outbreaks, while outbreaks of coronavirus would automatically prove the existence of secret laboratories.”

Supporters of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic wave flags and show a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin during the ‘Future of Serbia’ campaign rally in Belgrade, Serbia, April 19, 2019. Photo: EPA/Andrej Cukic

In the Western Balkans, he said, the COVID-19 pandemic was “artificially linked to another hypothesis – that the EU would ‘turn its back’ on the Western Balkans, as it has done with other European countries.”

Tibrigan said Russia sees the Western Balkans as “a vulnerable periphery of Europe,” one which presents “an opportunity to undermine the EU and NATO by exploiting local vulnerabilities.”

Sputnik’s Serbian-language outlet, based in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, is the main source of Russian disinformation in the Balkan region, Tibrigan told BIRN, while citing other outlets such as Russia Beyond the Headlines, which translates into Serbian and Macedonian, the newspaper Argumenti i Fakti [Arguments and Facts] and the ‘Ruska Rec’ newspaper supplement.

He said there was a “lack of political will” in the Western Balkans to combat Russian disinformation, while Serbia and North Macedonia have become not just consumers but “exporters” of Russian propaganda.

Tip of the iceberg

In the Eastern Partnership states – Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Armenia – Russian propaganda is more direct, Tibrigan said and does not use one particular state as a platform as Serbia is used in the Western Balkans.

Moldovan President Igor Dodon (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (C) take part in the flower-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow, Russia, June 24, 2020. Photo: EPA/GRIGORY SYSOEV

Disinformation has become an essential tool in trying to thwart the European path of these states, where Russian is widely spoken or understood, he said, alongside direct military intervention and the perpetuation of frozen conflicts.

“These propaganda narratives manage to penetrate the information ecosystems of the EaP [Eastern Partnership] states, with the public being ‘warned’ about the ‘lack of sustainability and stability’ of their Western partners,” said Tibrigan.

In Moldova, he said, the government and president actively disseminate pro-Kremlin propaganda, while authorities have not taken any measures to limit the influence of Russian-language social networks.

Notably during the pandemic, the Moldovan Orthodox Church, canonically subordinate to the Russian Patriarchy, has echoed the main Russian propaganda themes.

The Kremlin has earmarked 1.3 billion euros for media spending in 2020 is 1.3 billion euros, compared to the shoestring budget of the EU’s anti-propaganda unit, East Stratcom, of five million euros.

Of the Russian 1.3 billion, 325 million will go to state-controlled Russia Today, which broadcasts in roughly 100 countries around the world, Tibrigan said.

“And that’s just the visible part of the iceberg, given that we can’t estimate the exact value of the propaganda operations carried out by proxies or secret service entities.”

Moldovan Journalists Accuse Russian Peacemakers in Transnistria of Assault

Posted on July 22, 2020January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Two Moldovan journalists, Viorica Tataru and her colleague, Andrei Captarenco, both working for TV8 station, filled a complaint on Tuesday to the police Inspectorate in Dubasari after claiming that Russian peacemakers and Transnistrian border guards had assaulted them while doing their job.

“I have had previous incidents with them, but this time they became violent. One hit my hand and I dropped the phone, after which he took it from me and started deleting videos and pictures. The so-called peacemaker was very aggressive,” Tataru told BIRN.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the breakaway regime in Transnistria illegally erected 37 new checkpoints in the so-called Security Zone, the buffer zone separating Moldova from the breakaway region. The two journalists were shooting a video at one of the checkpoints when the trouble started.

Tataru said her mobile phone was only returned after the Russian soldier erased all her photos and videos, and only after a threat to summon the Moldovan police.

The incident did not stop here. Russian soldiers followed the journalists on to the ferry they had to take to cross the Dniester River back to Moldova. Tataru said she suspected the soldiers intended to detain them. They told the journalists to get off the ferry, to which the journalists reportedly responded that they were only doing their job and could not agree with this request as neither the Russian nor the Transnistrian soldiers had the competence or authority to ask them for such a thing.

“In the end, I cried and told people I didn’t understand their [passive] reaction: we will leave, but you stay here. Why do you accept and keep your heads down? … you will remain here with the same problems,” Tataru told BIRN, recalling her words to her fellow passengers.

The incident ended after an hour of negotiations on the ferry, and only after some Moldovan veterans from war in 1992 intervened and the local police arrived at the dock.

The breakaway region of Transnistria has been de facto separated from the rest of the country since the so-called Dniester War in 1992. The pro-Russian regime has since then proclaimed its independence and sought to become a part of the Russian Federation. Mediated talks have achieved little.

The Moldovan journalists, Andrei Captarenco and Viorica Tataru, filing a complaint at the police station in Dubasari. Photo: Viorica Tataru Facebook page

“It is another abuse on the part of the Transnistrian police on Moldovan territory … and we can only condemn it,” the director of the Independent Press Association, API, Petru Macovei, told BIRN.

He added that the situation showed again that things had not moved on from the current deadlock, and that the constitutional rights of Moldovan citizens often remain violated, even while the national authorities in Moldova are silent about it.

“The current government [in Moldova] is trying in every way to cover up such incidents out of electoral interest, or out of its servile attitude towards Russia,” Macovei concluded.

“This incident, in addition to being a restriction on freedom of expression and journalistic freedom, highlights an older issue: the status of the peacekeeping mission in the Transnistrian region of Moldova,” a human rights lawyer, Pavel Cazacu, from the Chisinau-based NGO Promo-LEX, told BIRN.

The peace settlement of the Transnistrian War in 1992 gave a peacemaking mission, which combines about 1,500 Russian, Moldovan and Ukrainian peacemakers, the right to remain in the Security Zone.

Cazacu noted that Promo-LEX had constantly called for the transformation of this structure into an international civilian mission.

“I believe that this incident will be a test for the constitutional authorities of Moldova, and such behaviour towards journalists must be vehemently condemned,” Cazacu concluded.

West Funding Favoured Media in Moldova, Socialist Deputy Claims

Posted on April 24, 2020January 26, 2023 by BIRD

The Socialist vice-speaker of the Moldovan parliament, Vlad Batrincea, told the assembly on Thursday that Western countries had given favoured media outlets in the country “millions of euros” during the pandemic, saying funding the media appeared to be their priority.

“Do you know what is the first money that comes from our dear partners, from the West? The first money, grants of millions of euros, big money, comes for media institutions, for more light on the issue of COVID-19,” Batrincea said.

The deputy also claimed that many journalists in Moldova had received thousands of euros in envelopes, without paying any income tax on it.

Batrincea made a name for himself for xenophobic attitudes towards neighbouring Romania when he ripped up a map of the country in the Moldovan parliament.

He is also known for harsh anti-LGBT statements. The deputy said he would reveal the names of these media beneficiaries in time. “I have this information and if we start this fight, OK, it will be mutual,” he added, without further elaboration.

Media NGO leaders criticised the allegation and denied such practices occurred, saying all international grants for the media required transparency as a rule.

“There cannot be any payments ‘in envelopes’. Independent media, especially those supported by grants, ensure transparency,” the director of the Centre of Independent Journalism in Moldova, Nadine Gogu, told the Ziarul de Garda newspaper. She added that it was regrettable for politicians to make such claims, adding that journalists should be left alone to do their work.

The director of the Independent Press Association, API, Petru Macovei, said such statements were an attack on journalists and politicians should refrain from such “anti-democratic slide slips”.

“The EU and other donors do not impose editorial conditions on journalists, as politicians, who own various media outlets, do,” said Macovei.

He added that the ruling Socialist Party was the main beneficiary of the concentration of media ownership in the country and was the owner of the principal media holding company.

“Batrincea has put honest journalists and pseudo-journalists, who do services for parties, in the same basket. He has used this situation to accuse all employees in the media of corruption,” Macovei continued.

He warned that it would be dangerous for the ruling party to resume the practice of the former ruling Communists and Democrats to use the secret service and police to practise surveillance on journalists.

Russian-language media have strengthened their position in Moldova since Igor Dodon became President and the Socialist Party took power in November 2019.

New investors in the media include Igor Chaika, the son of the former Russian General Prosecutor, who has become the owner of Primul in Moldova TV Channel, as Moldovan media have reported.

Some Balkan States Waging ‘Crusade’ Against Media, Report Warns

Posted on April 21, 2020January 26, 2023 by BIRD

Media freedom in Turkey, Bulgaria and Montenegro is the worst in the region, according to the 2020 World Press Freedom Index, published on Tuesday by Reporters Without Borders – but other Balkan countries have largely failed to improve.

“In southern Europe, a crusade by the authorities against the media is very active,” the report warns.

Turkey holds 154th place out of 180 countries worldwide in Reporters Without Borders’ media freedom rankings.

“Turkey is more authoritarian than ever,” the report says, noting an increase in media censorship, particularly of online outlets, despite the release of a number of imprisoned journalists.

Bulgaria is ranked in 111th place, and the report notes that despite international pressure, public radio management suspended experienced journalist Silvia Velikova, a government critic.

This highlighted the lack of independence of Bulgaria’s public broadcasting media and the hold some political leaders have over their editorial policy.

In Montenegro, which is ranked 105th, the report notes no progress, adding that authorities favour pro-government outlets while exercising pressure against other media outlets and journalists.

“In May 2018, investigative journalist Olivera Lakic was shot in the leg. Like in many previous physical attacks on journalists, Lakic’s case is still unsolved,” the report adds. It also mentioned the recent arrests of three journalists on suspicion of causing panic and disorder by publishing fake news.

Serbia is ranked in 93rd place. “After six years under the leadership of Aleksandar Vucic… Serbia has become a country where it is often dangerous to be a journalist and where fake news is gaining in visibility and popularity at an alarming rate,” the report notes.

It says that the number of verbal attacks by politicians on media has risen sharply, and that officials increasingly use inflammatory rhetoric against journalists.

It adds that the assailants who set fire to the house of investigative journalist Milan Jovanovic have yet to be convicted.

North Macedonia is ranked in 92nd place, an improvement on last year, which the report mostly attributes to the attempts for better self-regulation and the publishing of a register of professional online media.

But it also notes that municipal authorities are still able to place advertisements, which remains a tool for financial pressure on media outlets, and that the ruling party, the Social Democrats, have advertised their government’s achievements.

Moldova retains 91st position and the report notes an “extremely polarised” media landscape, with continuing concerns about ownership.

“The media empire built by former billionaire and Democratic Party boss Vladimir Plahotniuc has lost its influence but has been quickly replaced by a media group affiliated to the Democratic Party’s rival, the pro-Russian Party of Socialists,” the report says.

Albania is ranked 84th in the world, down two places from last year, a result of recently-adopted laws against defamation and tightened regulation of online media which could result in censorship and make journalists more vulnerable to government pressures.

Kosovo is ranked 70th by Reporters Without Borders, with the report noting that media in the country remains divided among ethnic lines, and that many outlets are not financially stable.

“Some of the shared concerns are physical and verbal attacks on journalists, cyber-attacks on online media as well as the lack of transparency of media ownership,” the report says.

Greece’s place in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, 65th, remains unchanged this year.

Croatia moves up five places and is now ranked 59th, but the report notes that the government is still meddling in the affairs of the national broadcaster, HRT, the defamation is still criminalised and that investigative journalists are often the targets of harassment campaigns.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is ranked 58th, also scoring a five-point rise. The report says the further collapse of public service broadcasters in the country is one of the main weaknesses, along with the polarised political climate, marked by constant verbal attacks and nationalist rhetoric, which “has created a hostile environment for press freedom”.

Romania is ranked 48th in the global index – the best position of all Balkan countries – but the report highlights some continuing shortcomings.

“The attitude towards journalism and free speech that prevails within the state and the political class continues to encourage censorship and self-censorship,” it says.

“The media’s funding mechanisms are opaque or even corrupt, and editorial policies are subordinated to owner interests. The media have gradually been turned into political propaganda tools and are routinely subjected to surveillance by the security services,” it adds.

The report marks Norway, Finland and Denmark as the three best countries in the world for press freedom, while Eritrea, Turkmenistan and North Korea are at the bottom of the list of 180 countries.

Reporters Without Borders says the report shows that the decade ahead will be “decisive for the future of journalism, with the COVID-19 pandemic highlighting and amplifying the many crises that threaten the right to freely reported, independent, diverse and reliable information”.

Moldovan Public TV Station Favours President, Study Says

Posted on April 17, 2020January 26, 2023 by BIRD

President Igor Dodon and his Socialist Party colleagues have received favourable treatment on the main national television station in Moldova, Moldova 1, according to a study by the Centre for Independent Journalism in Moldova.

The study, conducted between March 9-15, monitored the main daily news bulletins as well as the most important political TV shows each day of the week.

The report says that President Dodon was presented in a positive context in almost all news items and that the governing Socialist Party was also favoured over the opposition parties.

The public broadcaster has adjusted its informational content to suit the agenda of the government, the central public authorities being most frequently mentioned and quoted in the news, the study said.

Opposition parties and politicians were disadvantaged by being rarely quoted, and in terms of air time about their actions in news bulletins, it added.

In the news bulletin of March 9, for example, the report said, Moldova 1 quoted a Socialist Party deputy, Corneliu Furculita, urging opposition leaders Maia Sandu, of the PAS, and Ala Nemerenco, a former health minister, to “refrain from using the COVID-19 pandemic to do more political PR”.

The study argues that Moldova 1 has deviated from the best journalistic norms and also does not give opposing views the right to reply.

It said the TV station presented the President as a kind of “National Saviour/Messiah” in the current pandemic as soon as the first case of COVID-19 infection was reported on March 7.

“Starting from the fact that Moldova 1 is a public station, not a state-owned-one, the journalists and the employees of this institution should understand that they are in the service of Moldovan citizens,” expert Victor Gotisan said.

He urged the Audiovisual Council, CCA, to take action against such practices and restore the editorial independence of the national television station.

Central and Eastern Europe Freedom of Information Rights ‘Postponed’

Posted on April 6, 2020January 26, 2023 by BIRD

Citing the fight against COVID-19, authorities in a number of Central and Eastern European countries have extended the amount of time state bodies have to respond to freedom of information, FOI, requests, part of what media watchdogs say is a worrying crackdown on press freedom since the onset of the pandemic.

Media regulations across the region have been tightened under states of emergency and journalists have been arrested on accusations of spreading misinformation concerning the response of authorities to the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Some countries have sought to centralise the dissemination of official information and banned certain media from regular briefings.

FOI requests, a vital tool for journalists, have also fallen victim to the virus response; in Moldova, public officials have been allowed to decide alone whether or not to respond, while in Serbia, officials can refuse to respond to questions that are not related to the pandemic. In some cases, state bodies have been told they can delay responding until after a state of emergency has been lifted.

The measures have come in for criticism from rights organisations and raised suspicion that governments are trying to avoid public scrutiny of their response to the pandemic, which in many countries has been slow, chaotic and hampered by shortages of protective equipment for frontline medical staff.

Governments have an obligation to “ensure that measures to combat disinformation are necessary, proportionate and subject to regular oversight,” Dunja Mijatovic, human rights commissioner at the Council of Europe said on Friday.

Describing access to information as a “collateral victim” of government responses, Mijatovic said: “Despite the fact that timely information is essential for the public to understand the danger and adopt measures at a personal level to protect themselves, the filtering of information and delays in responses to freedom of information requests have been observed in several member states.”

Her statement followed a letter to the CoE from ten rights organisations that promote press freedoms and freedom of speech, among them Reporters Without Borders and the International Federation of Journalists, urging the 47-member body to take urgent measures against countries they accused of exploiting the crisis to curb essential freedoms.

Deadlines extended in Romania and Moldova

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis. Photo: EPA-EFE/ROBERT GHEMENT.

In European Union member Romania, President Klaus Iohannis signed a decree on March 16 declaring a 30-day state of emergency, which included a provision doubling the amount of time state institutions have to answer FOI requests.

Media outlets including Dela0.ro have reported that several local branches Health Ministry departments have cited the fight against COVID-19 in refusing to provide information to journalists or deferred questions to the communications office created by the Interior Ministry to centralise information about the crisis.

Likewise in neighbouring Moldova, authorities on Friday tripled the amount of time public bodies have to respond to FOI requests, from 15 days to 45. Media researcher and Independent Press Association, API, journalist Mariana Jacot told BIRN that when she had asked for public information from the Health Ministry she was told that ministry officials have more important things to deal with.

FOI right postponed in Serbia

In Serbia, the government has also extended the deadlines for state institutions to respond to a range of requests, including FOI requests to which institutions now have 30 days to respond once the state of emergency in the country is lifted.

Last week, for example, the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications told BIRN it would respond to an FOI request submitted by BIRN, “within the legal deadlines upon the termination of the state of emergency.”

Serbia’s Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, Milan Marinovic, welcomed the government’s measure in a statement on March 25.

Marinovic, who was nominated to the post last year by the ruling Serbian Progressive Party of President Aleksandar Vucic, said the move addressed a “number of concerns regarding the course and the calculation of deadlines during a state of emergency.”

His predecessor, however, questioned the way in which the measure was adopted.

“The government can adopt that regulation only when the parliament cannot meet due to objective reasons,” Rodoljub Sabic told BIRN. “The notion that parliament sessions cannot be held now is completely unsustainable, it is complete legal nonsense.”

The Serbian parliament was dissolved on March 15 after the government banned all gatherings of more than 50 people.

Referring to the trade ministry’s response to the BIRN FOI request, Sabic said: “Your right has practically been postponed.”

“Of course they can answer you. The regulation does not ban it, it only extends the deadlines. If they want, they can answer you.”

“Unfortunately, the regulation puts them in a position where they don’t have to answer the request. They can postpone your right until the state of emergency is over,” he said. “It all comes down to that body’s goodwill.”

Public debate in Montenegro amid pandemic

Delia Matilde Ferreira Rubio, chair of the board of directors of Transparency International. Photo: EPA-EFE/ALESSANDRO DELLA VALLE.

In Montenegro, rights groups have deplored a decision by the government to press ahead with public consultation on proposed amendments to the country’s law on access to information despite the restrictions imposed on public life amid the pandemic.

On March 31, civil society organisations and journalists called for a postponement, arguing that the lockdown had made participatory debate impossible.

The following day, the chair of Transparency International, Delia Ferreira Rubio, warned that any non-emergency legislative measure that requires public consultation should be postponed until full, active participation can be guaranteed.

Nevertheless, the Ministry of Public Administration called for written comments on the amendments to be submitted via the ministry’s official e-mail address by April 13.

The non-governmental Institute Alternative, which promotes good governance and democracy in Montenegro, urged the ministry to wait until the pandemic had passed.

“There is no reason to rush and have a bad discussion during the pandemic,” Stevo Muk said in a press release on April 3. “Especially since neither the government nor the parliament is functioning in a regular way.”

This article was changed on April 7 to amend the time Moldovan authorities have to respond to FOI requests.

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