During the broadcast “Let’s discuss together” (in Russian: “Обсуждаем вместе”) on February 7 on the regional public TV station Gagauziya Radio Television (GRT), attacks were launched against journalist Mihail Sirkeli, editor of the Nokta.md portal in Gagauzia.

All this was in connection with his critical views on the referendum that took place in the Gagauz autonomy in February 2014, and which was declared illegal by the Moldovan courts. According to the moderator, Mihail Sirkeli was invited to the show but refused to participate.

The whole broadcast was designed by the producers as a media lynching. The guests (deputy of the People’s Assembly L. Kiosea and two other persons presented as civic activists – I. Kilcik and M. Vlah, the latter being also the chair of the Council of Observers of the regional public media service provider GRT) for almost an hour attacked and labeled the journalist.

Non-governmental media organizations expressed their solidarity with journalist Mihail Sirkeli and called on politicians and other political activists in the autonomy to stop attacks and intimidation of inconvenient journalists and to respect the constitutional right to free expression of opinion.

The nine signatories of the statement, including the Independent Journalism Center (IJC), also warned against the biased behavior of the show’s moderator, Irina Caraman, “who, through her questions and remarks, conveyed personal opinions in agreement with the guests and did not stop them when they directly attacked the journalist for his opinions.”

The signatory NGOs recall that this is not the only attack by politicians and local activists in ATU Gagauzia on inconvenient journalists and personally on Mihail Sirkeli. “We stand in solidarity with Mihail Sirkeli and demand an end to these illegal practices of intimidation,” the statement reads.

They called on GRT’s Council of Observers to dismiss Mihail Vlah from his position as Chair of the Council because “he is a politically affiliated person and influences the editorial policy of the regional public media service provider.”

At the same time, the media NGOs called on journalists of the public broadcaster GRT not to accept the interference of politicians in their professional work and to respect the rules of professional ethics and the legal provisions ensuring the pluralism of opinions.

Media-related objectives are missing from the Recean Government’s program of activities, according to the IJC’s Media Azi portal. In the activity plan entitled “Moldova prosperous, secure, European,” the new Cabinet of Ministers set priorities for several areas, but the media sector was not included in the list. The only media-related priority is mentioned in the Justice sector and refers to the approval of a new law on access to information of public interest, accompanied by a vote on the Law on the Protection of Personal Data and the Law on the National Center for the Protection of Personal Data.

The objectives also include “preventing and combating hybrid threats in the field of cyber and information security” and the priorities for state security include “strengthening the structures responsible for combating hybrid threats and ensuring cyber security to increase the level of security for people, state institutions and the private sector,” without specific reference to the media.

The Prime Minister’s spokesperson Daniel Voda said that the government’s program focuses on the application of European standards, including in the media, and transparency is an implicit subject and an objective. The program is a guideline, and other issues have not been included in detail. The current Executive must establish transparency and institutional communication as basic principles in its relations with citizens and the media.

According to Ion Bunduchi, executive director of the Electronic Press Association, media experts have noted that the executives that have come and gone in recent years have had different programs, some with general phrases about the media and others with separate and extensive sections. More actions could have been listed, in addition to the three laws assumed for adoption, but the government, in practice, will continue to be one of crises and emergencies, and enough actions will likely overturn this program as well.

Bunduchi believes that the current government does not believe that the media can be a driver of change for the better and lacks the vision to incorporate the media in accelerating priority actions.

In 2022, the media situation in the Republic of Moldova was marked by serious problems, according to the State of the Press Index (ISPM) released by the IJC at the end of January. The most critical issues are the influence of the war in Ukraine on the local press, the financial problems of the media field, the poor application of media legislation, and the insufficient professional training of journalists.

According to the document, the accumulated score is not even half of what is considered a good press climate (60 points).

The index, published for the seventh consecutive year, also shows that amendments to media legislation are welcome, but the poor application of legal rules in practice persists. Politically, the media space has been strongly influenced by the Russian Federation’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which has created a hostile political context, especially for the independent press in Gagauzia. At the same time, the economic environment is the most vulnerable among the seven indicators as the main source of funding for media outlets continues to be foreign grants.

Last year, the quality of journalism and the professional environment were marked by the efforts of the independent press to cover the war in Ukraine accurately and to train war correspondents. However, these factors were negatively influenced by media sources adopting the “ostrich tactic” of avoiding the story. Both information security and the security of journalists in Moldova are vulnerable to the impact of hybrid threats, the study finds.

The paper’s author, media expert Ion Bunduchi, proposed a set of recommendations to redress the situation. These include supplementing media legislation by regulating all types of media, including online; diversifying sources of funding in the media and creating a fund to support the press in crises, and reforming institutions that train journalists to adjust training programs to the real requirements of the media market. It also recommends that journalists should make public any interference by state institutions in their work and any form of intimidation.

The authors of the Index on the State of the Press in Moldova (ISPM) in 2022 also note that in the context of the war in Ukraine, the authorities and representatives of civil society have cooperated for the first time on the dimension of securing the national information space to counter disinformation and manipulation through the use of the media space. However, although the cooperation resulted in concrete actions, the effectiveness was low and insufficient to ensure the security of the information space.

According to the document, in 2022 there was “an increase in cyber-attacks on information systems in the country. About 100 information resources from 40 institutions, as well as a commercial bank, were subject to attacks. Telegram accounts of current and former government officials were hacked, and websites, including media sites, were attacked.”

The report states that “at the local and international level, there have been increasing reports of phishing data and identity theft, online espionage and the use of deep fakes to discredit organizations, cyberbullying, and orchestrated defamation actions on social networks.”

On the positive side, experts note the establishment of the Coordinating Council for Information Security within the government. They also welcome the ban on disinformation in the media services introduced into the legislation, as well as the ban on audiovisual programs with news, news-analytical, military, and political content produced in countries other than the EU, the US, Canada, and countries that have ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television. Broadcasts justifying wars of aggression, denying war crimes and crimes against humanity, or inciting hatred have also been banned.

The experts also recall “the most effective remedy for the security of the media space is quality journalism and media education, which over time can strengthen resilience in the face of falsehoods, misinformation, and manipulation.” As an example, the authors note that Radio Moldova and Eco FM have taken over and broadcast the podcast cuMinte, produced by IJC.

“The ban on broadcasting toxic audiovisual content, the blocking of the Sputnik.md website and, as a result, the self-dissolution of its editorial staff, as well as the suspension of the broadcasting licenses of the six TV stations have little effect as long as the legal procedures for regulating the online environment are lacking,” the document adds.

In 2023, The Broadcasting Council is expected to approve the methodology that will allow it to monitor hate speech in radio and TV programs, according to the institution’s recently released action plan. Although broadcasting law prohibits programs promoting such messages, expert monitoring shows that hate speech has increased in the past year since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, including on small screens.

The BC’s action plan for 2023 includes approval in the second quarter of the year of the Methodology for Monitoring Hate Speech in Audiovisual Media Content. “The importance of the methodology lies in its practical usefulness for the Broadcasting Council’s team of monitors. It is also important for publishers and editors, who will be able to see what the BC will pay attention to during the monitoring and, respectively, it is a guide for editors on how to make a journalistic product, what to include, and what to avoid”, said Liliana Vitu, president of the BC, for the IJC Mediacritica portal.

Asked when exactly the BC will be able to start monitoring hate speech on TV and radio, Vitu said that “the BC is already monitoring cases of hate speech when petitioned on this subject, but we do it without a methodology and we appeal to the advisory opinion of the Equality Council.”

In the first two months of the war in Ukraine, Promo-LEX identified 83 cases of hate speech in the public space in the Republic of Moldova, which showed how hate speech has become part of war propaganda.

The Russian-language weekly SP Balti stopped publishing its print version again earlier this year after returning to print in January 2021. The reason for the decision is a lack of financial resources, the newspaper’s founder and director Veaceslav Perunov told Media Azi.

SP Balti also stopped publishing the printed version in January 2020 due to a lack of funds. According to Veaceslav Perunov, the team subsequently obtained money for editing and publishing the newspaper from a grant from the European Endowment for Democracy, which has been exhausted, and the return to print depends on accessing new grants.

The director of SP Balti said that the newspaper had a circulation of 600 copies, aimed at older people who do not necessarily have the ability or opportunity to get information from online sources. “We have received many calls to the editorial office from our readers, who were deeply disappointed that they would no longer be able to receive the newspaper. Now we are waiting, if we are offered funding for another two years, we will return to print, otherwise – we will stay online only,” Perunov added.

In a summary of the falsehoods distributed both in the press and on social media since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the IJC portal Mediacritica looks back at the most widely distributed falsehoods about the war that have circulated in the public space and directly or indirectly targeted the Republic of Moldova.

Among them are rumors that appeared in the first days of the war that the Republic of Moldova is under siege and that mobilization has been ordered. The Ministry of Defense then denied this falsehood, urging the population to remain calm.

Another rumor that marked the first days after the invasion was that diplomatic missions in Moldova would be evacuated. The official Telegram channel First Source warned that this was a falsehood.

Several false narratives have been spread in the public space about Ukrainian refugees: “Each refugee will receive an allowance of 15,000 lei (video that circulated on social networks)”; “The government obliges citizens to donate one day’s salary to support Ukrainian refugees on the territory of the Republic of Moldova” and others, whose purpose was to create panic in society and incite hatred. The government produced reactions each time, and most media outlets covered these denials.

A whole string of misinformation came from the pro-Kremlin media, which predicted that Moldova would fall “into the abyss” without Russian gas. The pro-Russian press regularly published articles claiming that Moldova would fall into an “abyss” without energy imports from Russia and that joining an EU common procurement platform for fuel would nullify Moldovan sovereignty.

Similarly, during the year of the war, there were numerous manipulative fake stories in the media about Moldova’s rapprochement with the EU, with the EU allegedly making false promises and enslaving neighboring countries using Ukraine and Moldova as political tools, and Moldova’s candidate status being granted in exchange for joining EU sanctions against Russia.

Ten press freedom violations were recorded in the Republic of Moldova during 2022, out of a total of 813 violations in the EU Member States and candidate countries. The data was published earlier this year by the Media Freedom Rapid Response project team, designed to provide multilateral support to journalists and media employees.

According to the organization’s report, monitoring of Moldova began when it became a candidate country for EU membership in June 2022, and of Ukraine – when the war began. In the neighboring country, 140 press freedom violations were documented, representing 17.2% of the total number of countries covered in the research. At the same time, the study reveals that the 813 violations are nearly equally divided between EU member and candidate countries – 415 versus 398.

However, the report points out that in addition to journalists affected by the war, reporters in Europe have faced many forms of pressure and attacks in the past year, from threats or hacking of their phones to being targeted by lawsuits from private companies or being banned from press conferences, and even physical attacks and killings. The past year has seen an increase in online abuse of journalists, as well as the targeting of those writing on environmental issues.

The case in which Jurnal TV’s administrator, Val Butnaru, was found guilty of libel and deprived of the right to hold TV and radio positions for half a year will be retried by the first instance. The Chisinau Court of Appeal allowed Val Butnaru’s appeal. The decision was taken by the magistrates on Tuesday, 21 February, according to Jurnal TV.

The appeals court decided that the case will be retried by the same court, but by a different panel of judges.

“We still consider that Val Butnaru is not guilty of any crime. The facts he is accused of are non-existent, the procedure for establishing this contravention was manifestly illegal,” Dumitru Pavel, the TV station’s lawyer, commented to Jurnal TV.

Media Azi previously wrote about the fact that in 2022, Val Butnaru was fined 4,500 lei (225 euros) and deprived of the right to hold positions of responsibility in audiovisual institutions for half a year after being accused of slander, by a decision of 26 July 2022 of the Chisinau Court.

The criminal proceedings were triggered after a former police officer, targeted in a Jurnal TV investigation, filed a complaint with the police. Vitalie Grabovschi accused Jurnal TV of spreading “false and defamatory information about the commission of a crime, thereby damaging his honor, personal dignity, and professional reputation.”

“Grabovschi is the former head of the Dubasari Police Inspectorate, targeted in a Jurnal TV investigation from July 2021, along with two other policemen, Ion Tarna and Alexei Vizdan, who are allegedly involved in cigarette smuggling. Citing a violation of Article 70 of the Contravention Code, the police officer recommended to the court to deprive our TV station of the right to operate for a period of one year,” Jurnal TV wrote at the time.

In July 2022, media organizations expressed concern about the Chisinau court’s ruling. “Depriving Jurnal TV’s administrator of the right to occupy positions of responsibility within a media institution is a serious and disproportionate measure, and the decision of the Chisinau Court sets a dangerous precedent for the freedom of the press,” according to the media NGOs’ statement. The organizations also called on law enforcement bodies dealing with libel cases “to stop the misuse of legal provisions as a weapon against freedom of expression of the media and to refrain from misinterpreting legislation in the future.”