seemo on Thu, 21 Mar 2002 09:43:06 +0100 (CET) |
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[Nettime-ro] SEEMO IPI MOLDOVA PROTEST - 19 MARCH 2002 |
SEEMO IPI MOLDOVA PROTEST - 19 MARCH 2002 His Excellency Vladimir
Voronin
President
Office
of the President Bd
Stefan cel Mare 154 Chisinau Republic
of Moldova Fax:
+ 373 – 22 45 089 Vienna,
19 March 2002 Your
Excellency, The
International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media
executives and leading journalists, and its affiliate, the South East European
Media Organisation (SEEMO), are concerned by the recent intimidation of the
Committee for Press Solidarity, comprised of up to 500 protesting Moldavian
journalists and media workers of the state-owned company
TeleRadio-Moldova. Since
late February, employees of TeleRadio-Moldova have protested media
censorship and demanded greater press freedom. The journalists, along with civil
society organisations and opposition parties, claim that the
TeleRadio-Moldova supports the ruling Communist Party of Moldova (PCM). A
claim founded on the belief that, since early January, the station has
deliberately censored reports on anti-government protests held in the
country’s capital, Chisinau. Although the
government has formed a special investigative commission to look into the
affair, journalists are fearful that the commission, which is largely composed
of individuals loyal to the government, will be biased. In addition, despite a
meeting between Your Excellency and the Committee’s representatives to, in your
own words, “improve the situation”, you have allegedly accused the journalists
of being a “gang paid to organise protest actions by foreign forces”. IPI is
therefore is concerned that the government lacks the desire to resolve the
issue. Aside
from the governments failure to deal comprehensively with the demands of the
journalists, there have been apparent attempts by the managers of
TeleRadio-Moldova to silence journalists who have shown solidarity with
the protestors. In mid-March, news anchors, editors and producers of the TV news
department of the TeleRadio-Moldova were dismissed by the company’s
management. Among these were Dinu Rusnac, anchor of the Russian-language
newscast, who had aired the protest declarations of his colleagues, and Larisa
Manole, who was dismissed under the pretext of having committed a “technical
error”. IPI would respectfully ask that you reinstate all of the journalists
forthwith. IPI
and SEEMO request that you do everything in your power to ensure that the media
workers at TeleRadio-Moldova are allowed to report freely and that the
government undertakes to do everything necessary to guarantee freedom of
expression in Moldova. Furthermore, we would like to remind you that Moldova is
a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights and is bound by article
10 which upholds the fundamental principle of freedom of expression. We
thank you for your attention. Yours
sincerely, Johann
P. Fritz
Oliver Vujovic IPI Director SEEMO
Secretary General |