Moldova

New York, April 8, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Moldovan authorities today to allow Romanian journalists to enter Moldova and report on anti-communist rallies that have swept Moldova's capital, Chisinau, since Monday. Approximately 10,000 protesters took to the streets on Tuesday to protest Sunday's parliamentary election, which was won by President Vladimir Voronin's Communist Party. 

New York, January 19, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores the suspension of the popular Chisinau-based public radio station Antena C. The station, which frequently aired reports critical of the government, has been off the air for more than a month, and local sources said they fear it is part of an official clampdown on news ahead of May elections.

Broadcasting was interrupted at 3 p.m. on December 16, while the station was airing a report that criticized a new government plan to privatize Antena C and the television station Euro TV, local sources told CPJ. Antena C journalists had also recently protested the authorities’ decision to change the station’s management; Veceaslav Sitnic, former chief editor for the government radio station Radio Moldova, had been named the new director.

New York, September 11, 2006—Interior Ministry officials arrested an employee and searched the premises of an independent television station in Moldova’s capital, Chisinau, while investigating accusations of bribe-soliciting last week, according to press reports and CPJ interviews. Ghenadie Braghis, sales director at the Chisinau branch of the Romanian television station Pro-TV, was arrested on Thursday evening and has been held incommunicado and without access to legal counsel.

Moldova

Thirteen years after declaring independence from the Soviet Union, Moldova is plagued by a corrupt communist government, a stagnant economy, and an ongoing civil conflict with the breakaway Trans-Dniester Region. Corruption is widespread in a society where criminal groups have fused with the government and business. Independent and opposition media struggle to survive amid a general state of lawlessness and poverty that has forced many to align themselves with political parties to survive. The government continues to use politicized agencies to control the press.

CPJ Update December 15, 2004 News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

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New York, September 8, 2004—A cameraman with the Chisinau-based state television station Moldova One was arrested and sentenced to 15 days in prison this week after trying to cover the seizure of a Moldovan railway station in the breakaway enclave of Trans-Dniester.

The cameraman, Dinu Mija, and Moldova One correspondent Lyudmila Munteanu were on assignment in Tighina (also known as Bender) on September 6, covering the railway center seizure by Transdniestrian authorities, local reports said. (Molodova One was formerly Teleradio Moldova.)

New York, June 25, 2005—Alina Anghel, 29, an investigative journalist with the opposition weekly tabloid Timpul, based in Moldova's capital, Chisinau, was attacked outside her home on the morning of Wednesday, June 23, as she was leaving for work, according to local and international news reports.

New York, April 26, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is pleased by the Moldovan Parliament’s decision to remove Article 170 from the country’s Criminal Code. Article 170 called for up to five years imprisonment for defamation.

Moldova’s authoritarian president, Vladimir Voronin, sponsored the initiative in March after European officials called on countries within the former Soviet bloc to decriminalize libel. The proposal was greeted with unanimity in an April 22 session of Parliament.