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Activity of the President on June 28 – July 11, 2004

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Guarantees for a Democratic Process and Mass Media Freedom

“Guarantees for a Democratic Process and Mass Media Freedom” is the title of the initiative launched by President Voronin on July 5 during his meeting with Vladimir Filipov, a special representative of the Council of Europe’s Secretary-General, and Neil Brannon, deputy chairman of the OSCE mission to Moldova. President Voronin called on all political parties to rally around Moldova’s democratization process and support the independence of the media.

Voronin dismissed allegations that the Party of Communists (PCM) intends to manipulate the 2005 parliamentary elections and subject the independent media to repression and harassment. President Voronin indicated that in order to refute those allegations it was necessary to modernize the democratic institutions in the Republic of Moldova and perfect the legal conditions for the functioning of independent and public media. According to the President, for the aforesaid goals to be fulfilled, five conditions were necessary:

  1. “all the political forces in the country should start from the premise that regardless of the outcome in the forthcoming elections, efficient and accountable rule of law should remain unchanged;
  2. /…/ all political parties shall be interested in ensuring and guaranteeing human rights and freedom of speech;
  3. all political parties and socio-political organizations, state bodies and mass media shall equally abide the law and reconfirm their attachment to moral values of a democratic society, refrain from employing black campaigning, from calls to ethnic discrimination or violation of national minorities’ rights;
  4. all actors to the political and social processes shall view as unacceptable the use of administrative, economic and criminal levers against electoral process, including freedom of speech;
  5. all responsible parties and movements, media outlets shall equally view as unacceptable resorting to ideas of territorial disintegration, secessionism or Republic of Moldova joining another state”.

Besides those obligations “which the power is willing to assume unilaterally”, President Voronin suggested a string of additional guarantees:

  1. amending certain provisions of the Civil Code so as to set a ceiling for the material and moral compensation a person may demand from a media outlet for damages relating to the business reputation or a person’s honour and dignity;
  2. setting up a national watchdog on human rights;
  3. putting in place an efficient mechanism of enforcing court rulings;
  4. all public radio and television stations in Moldova approve a project based on the recommendations of the OSCE mission to Moldova and the special representative of the Council of Europe secretary-general on basic democratic standards for the electronic media.

Later during the week, in a joint press release of the diplomatic representations in Chisinau of France, Germany, United Kingdom, Poland, United States, Hungary as well as the office of the Council of Europe’s special representative and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe mission said they salute last week’s launching by 12 nongovernmental organizations of a drive aimed at ensuring free and fair parliamentary elections in 2005. They also saluted President Voronin’s initiative.

As for political elite and media, which was invited for discussions with President Voronin on July 6 and 7, it remains split. Some of the them saluted President’s initiative as timely. Some voiced their objections and lingering concerns, while others alleged President’s initiative was nothing but an electoral trick, thereby citing the shortcomings mentioned in the OSCE Observation Mission report on 2003 local elections; the current state of democratic institutions in Moldova; and the failure of similar initiatives such as “Social Pact”, etc.

The fact that many of the party leaders share the same doze of scepticism, makes it quite improbable that many parties would rush into signing the so-called “Convention on the ethical standards of electoral debate”.

In spite of the many reserves one might have to the President Voronin’s initiative, it should be acknowledged that the suggestion to amend Article 16 of the Civil Code is quite timely. In fact domestic press and NGOs in the field have been insisting on such measures for quite a while, as the said provisions pose a threat for media outlets to go bankrupt if found guilty of damages relating to the business reputation or a person’s honour and dignity.

June 14–27, 2004 July 26 – August 29, 2004