His Excellency Mircea Snegur
President
Chisinau
Moldova

Vienna, 12 June 1995

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI) is extremely concerned about moves being taken by your country’s parliament aimed at restricting freedom of journalists to report on public meetings.

It has been brought to our attention that the parliament of Moldova is considering the ratification of a bill which would severely impair the freedom and rights of journalists working within your borders. The bill in question would prohibit all journalists, including foreign press, from being present at public meetings unless requests for participation were made 30 days in advance. The bill would also require journalists to immediately leave public meetings at their closing without customary opportunity to pose questions to the meetings’ participants. Beyond the sanctions directed specifically to journalists, the bill would also restrict the freedom of individuals to organize public demonstrations. The IPI strongly protests your parliament’s anticipated assault on the freedom of the press and the attempts being made to corrode democracy.

IPI, representing publishers, editors-in-chief and leading journalists from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in 89 countries, is alarmed by the conduct of the Moldovan parliament and is gravely concerned by the thinly veiled attempts at censorship and harassment contained within the proposed parliamentary bill. We therefore urge you to use your office’s influence to prevent the ratification of the bill in question and to aid the development of democracy within your country.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director