A Group of Lawyers Has Been Instructed to Protect the Rights of Moldovan Journalists during the IJC Program on Media Law
29 law professionals improved their knowledge in the sphere of media law in order to be able to provide timely high-quality legal services to journalists from the Republic of Moldova. The participants, lawyers and attorneys, attended two capacity building workshops on access to information and freedom of expression held on October 29 and November 1, 2024, respectively, within the program organized by the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) in cooperation with the Center for Instructing Attorneys (CIA) from Chisinau.
The coaching program was developed as a response to the urgent need to protect the rights and interests of journalists in the Republic of Moldova who are faced with multiple ungrounded defamation lawsuits and illegal refusals to provide data of public interest.
The coach of the session held on October 29, Victor KALUGHIN, senior consultant at the Directorate of the Ministry of Justice in charge of drafting normative acts and co-author of the new Law on Access to Information of Public Interest, explained to the participants how the law should be applied correctly, as well as which ways and means of efficient protection of the media’s right to get access to information of public interest should be used. The session was also attended by several lawyers working for information providers who shared their eagerness to join the attorneys during the training session in order to have a better idea of properly examining and settling requests for access to information.
During the session held on November 1, the trainee lawyers explored the legislation and law practices related to freedom of expression. Coach Vadim VIERU, attorney and Promo-Lex Association program director, explained to the participants the particularities of the process of defending journalists in case of defamation lawsuits, emphasizing the specific guarantees stipulated by the press legislation.
“The IJC provides legal assistance and legal advice to journalists and independent media outlets, as they are often faced with defamation lawsuits or troubles getting access to information of public interest. In the Republic of Moldova, we have many attorneys, but, unfortunately, very few of them are specialized in the media sphere. For this reason, these sessions were very important, and we hope that the participating attorneys will cooperate with the IJC for protecting the media’s rights and legitimate interests”, Cristina DURNEA, Media Policy and Legislation Program manager at the IJC, said.
The coaching program was organized within the “Responding, Expanding and Acting on Disinformation” (READ) project jointly implemented by International Media Support (IMS) and the IJC, with the financial support of the European Union.
