PM says Moldova obliged to tighten security of information space

Chisinau, 25 January /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Pavel Filip told a today’s news conference that he was regretting the decision by the Russian MPs to condemn the anti-propaganda law adopted in Chisinau. The PM said that the document was not against Russia and was meant to tighten the security of the  information space in Moldova.  

According to Filip, the declaration adopted by Russia’s State Duma on 24 January was not for the good of the bilateral relations.  

“I want to emphasize that this anti-propaganda law is not an anti-Russia law, but a pro-Moldova law. This is law by which Moldova is obliged to tighten the security of its information space,” the prime minister noted.   

The PM specified that it was no longer secret that Russia intervenes, though its information channels, in the support of some pro-Russian parties from Moldova. Filip said that the Moldovan authorities had been tolerant and did not adopt laws which fully prohibit the Russian channels, just as other countries from the regions did it.   

“We have not taken measures just as other countries did it, through which they fully banned the Russian channels; we have banned only the political and analytical programmes,” Filip said.   

The prime minister showed discontent with the commentaries recently made by some Russian channels about Moldova. “I do not think that you liked the light in which Moldova was showed and I do not believe that one should be a good knower to see that things have been distorted and there was no objective presentation, even proceeding from the statistic figures, speaking about exports. I was surprised to learn that 80 per cent of the exports go to the Russian market. I know that 65 per cent of these exports go to the EU market,” Filip added.    

On 24 January, the lawmakers of the Russian State Duma adopted a declaration on the inadmissibility of the discrimination of the Russian mass media in Moldova. In the text, the Russian lawmakers invoked the fact that the ban on the broadcasting of Russian analytical programmes on the territory of Moldova is an infringement of the international legal norms in the sector of free access to information. Also, the Russian Mps describe such actions as “another anti-Russian act.”  The Russian lawmakers urged the United Nations Organization, Council of Europe and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to give a mark to the anti-propaganda law, passed in Moldova, and demanded that Russia’s leadership undertakes a string of measures, in order to find other ways and methods for Russian journalistic products to reach the Moldovans’ houses.

Also on 24 January, a group of MPs registered in Moldova’s parliament a draft declaration, thereby condemning the attacks of Russia against the national information security and the abusive interference with the political activity from Moldova. The Moldovan lawmakers said they opted for a constructive dialogue due to lead to the removing of blockages emerged and resuming the activities concerning the strengthening and development of the strategic partnership between Moldova and Russia. The document is to be put to vote at one of the first parliament plenary meetings of the spring session.

In late last year, the Moldovan parliament adopted a draft law which provides for the amendment of the Audiovisual Code. The document establishes that Moldova will allow the broadcasting on its territory of only the TV and radio programmes with informative, analytical, military and political content which are produced in the member states of the European Union, the USA, Canada, as well as in the countries which ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television – a document which has not been ratified by Russia.   

President Igor Dodon turned down the law twice. Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu promulgated the law on 10 January, following a decision by the Constitutional Court, which had found out the existence of circumstances justifying the exercising of the interim duties of the position of head of state for the law’s promulgation.   

(Reporter A. Zara, editor  A. Raileanu)