Press Freedom Days: The Memorandum on Press Freedom from May 3, 2022 to May 3, 2023 has been launched.

The Independent Journalism Center and eight other non-governmental media organizations (NGOs) point out that several problems affecting the media—reduced resilience during crises, the lack of financial sustainability, difficulties accessing information, and the erosion of public trust in information—persist and need to be effectively and promptly addressed. These findings are reflected in the Memorandum on Press Freedom in the Republic of Moldova for the period May 3, 2022–May 3, 2023, a document launched on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day proclaimed by the UN General Assembly three decades ago.

The memorandum highlights minor improvements in some segments that influence the social mission of the media; however, that progress cannot be classified as a stable trend. The signatories of the document note the harmful effects of the tense political, social, and economic context during the reference period on the activity of a free and independent press.

The authors of the memorandum emphasized that 30 years after the declaration of World Press Freedom Day journalists continue to face abusive practices by government authorities despite international treaties and constantly voicing their objections to obstructing press access to information of public interest. The memorandum also highlights condemnable actions by malicious political actors against the press, especially at the regional and local levels. Apart from the challenges to press security that pre-existed the war in Ukraine, the war has generated new risk factors for the media including attacks on the cybersecurity of several press institutions and the danger to which war correspondents are exposed.

The 9 NGOs that signed the memorandum also noted that the attack by the Russian Federation on Ukraine increased the vulnerability of the information space of the Republic of Moldova to hybrid threats; the authorities must streamline their policies and interventions to restore and protect it.

The memorandum contains a series of recommendations addressed to the Government and Parliament that if put into practice would contribute to encouraging and protecting press freedom. Among other things, it recommends improving decision making at the Audiovisual Council to protect the public from war propaganda without affecting press freedom, implementing effective mechanisms to ensure transparency of media ownership, preventing and curbing threats and/or aggression against the media, and improving the legislation on access to information by ensuring the correct and uniform application of the law.

Loading

Share This

Copy Link to Clipboard

Copy