Moldovan NGOs call on moi and Prosecutor General’s Office to investigate into journalists’ intimidation

Moldovan NGOs in the field of mass media, have called on the Ministry of the Interior and on the Prosecutor General’s Office to start an investigation, in order to establish the identities of those who tried to intimidate two prominent Moldovan journalists: Constantin Cheianu and Vasile Nastase.   

Thus, representatives of the NGOs stated that the intimidation, threats and violence used by some people and particular forces, who want to make the journalists go silent, must be condemned in a rule-of-law state. 

Representatives of the civil society also demanded that the law enforcement bodies undertake the needed measures to protect the lives and physical integrity of the threatened journalists.  

“We call on the law enforcement bodies to start an investigation into both cases, in order to establish who has been threatening and chasing these journalists. The perpetrators must be punished in line with the Moldovan legislation,” the document says.  

The appeal was signed by the Independent Journalism Center (IJC), by the Association of Independent Press, the Association of Electronic Media, by the Committee for Press Freedom, the Center of Journalistic Investigations, the Access-Info Center and the Center of Young Moldovan Journalists.   

Infotag’s dossier: Analyst Vasile Nastase announced the Moldovan authorities and the international institutions that he has been threatened with death, via SMS. Moreover, another Moldovan journalist, Constantin Cheianu also said that he got an SMS in which he has been menaced that he will be stopped, if he continues to openly speak about mafia in the Moldovan leadership. Cheianu is the producer and presenter of the ‘Ora de Ras’ (Time to laugh/to shave) – A weekly TV show that is a filter, mocking the incompetence, the lack of taste and culture of some politicians and public officials. It covers fields like politics, show-business, mass-media and the life of the simple citizens. Both journalists think that these threats are related to their professional activities. 

Adapted from infotag