Popular Moldovan radio station still off the air; CPJ deplores shutdown
New York, January 19, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores the suspension of the popular Chisinau-based public radio station Antena C. The station, which frequently aired reports critical of the government, has been off the air for more than a month, and local sources said they fear it is part of an official clampdown on…
Interior Ministry searches television station, arrests employee
New York, September 11, 2006—Interior Ministry officials arrested an employee and searched the premises of an independent television station in Moldova’s capital, Chisinau, while investigating accusations of bribe-soliciting last week, according to press reports and CPJ interviews. Ghenadie Braghis, sales director at the Chisinau branch of the Romanian television station Pro-TV, was arrested on Thursday…
Attacks on the Press 2004: Moldova
MoldovaThirteen years after declaring independence from the Soviet Union, Moldova is plagued by a corrupt communist government, a stagnant economy, and an ongoing civil conflict with the breakaway Trans-Dniester Region. Corruption is widespread in a society where criminal groups have fused with the government and business. Independent and opposition media struggle to survive amid a…
Cameraman arrested during railway seizure; sentenced to 15 days in prison
New York, September 8, 2004—A cameraman with the Chisinau-based state television station Moldova One was arrested and sentenced to 15 days in prison this week after trying to cover the seizure of a Moldovan railway station in the breakaway enclave of Trans-Dniester. The cameraman, Dinu Mija, and Moldova One correspondent Lyudmila Munteanu were on assignment…
Journalist attacked after exposing high-level corruption
New York, June 25, 2005—Alina Anghel, 29, an investigative journalist with the opposition weekly tabloid Timpul, based in Moldova’s capital, Chisinau, was attacked outside her home on the morning of Wednesday, June 23, as she was leaving for work, according to local and international news reports.
Parliament removes defamation article from Criminal Code
New York, April 26, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is pleased by the Moldovan Parliament’s decision to remove Article 170 from the country’s Criminal Code. Article 170 called for up to five years imprisonment for defamation. Moldova’s authoritarian president, Vladimir Voronin, sponsored the initiative in March after European officials called on countries within the…
Attacks on the Press 2003: Moldova
Moldova has emerged from the Soviet era with many of the problems that plague other states in the region: an ongoing separatist conflict dividing the nation’s ethnic populations, widespread government corruption, financial hardship, and a biased judiciary. Unlike many other former Soviet republics, however, Moldova has neither the natural resources nor the geopolitical importance to…
Attacks on the Press 2002: The Hague
December 11 Jonathan C. Randal, The Washington Post The U.N. International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague (ICTY) ruled to limit compelled testimony from war correspondents. The decision, announced at the tribunal’s Appeals Chamber, came in response to the appeal by former Washington Post reporter Jonathan C. Randal, who had been…