Moldovan Media Freedom is in Jeopardy, Forum Warns

Freedom of the press is in danger in Moldova, Western diplomats, Moldovan journalists and experts said on Thursday at the Media Forum 2018, held in the capital, Chisinau.

Media freedom is already restricted, but the country's legislators are not interested in providing a better framework for an independent media to develop, speakers said.

"The print press almost doesn't exist any longer in this country. We also know the risks present in the audiovisual sector, with the concentration of ownership. Everybody should want to protect the independent media," the EU ambassador to Chisinau, Peter Michalko, said.

The EU is involved in many programmes aimed at professionalizing national broadcasters in order to assure better quality output and diversification of information, he said.

But Michalko said that propaganda and disinformation still "thrive while the independent, objective and professional mass media face constraints in their daily activities".

The US ambassador to Moldova, Dereck Hogan, said the US embassy would continue to monitor cases of intimidation, repression of journalists, and limited access to information.

"The biggest challenges are propaganda and misinformation aimed at undermining the progress of Moldova on its chosen [European] path," he said.

"The fake and confusing information produced here contributes to this confusion, so it is very difficult for citizens to know what is happening inside the country," the ambassador said.

Moldova has a serious problem with media concentration. More than 70 per cent of the media outlets, according to studies, are in the hands of a few strong political parties and businessmen with political connections.

The president of the Press Council in Moldova, Viorica...