On December 10 this year, the Ministry of Justice of R. Moldova and the Association of Independent Press (API) have organised a „round table” to discuss the issues related to the implementation of Law no. 221 of 17.09.2010 on privatization of public periodicals and legal modalities to reorganise the publications financed from district and municipal public budgets. The organisers invited experts, leaders and representatives of local public authorities who failed to comply with the provisions of the Law, editors-in-chief of public periodicals subject to further privatization.

February 2013 was the deadline for the reorganisation through privatization of state-funded public periodicals set by Law 221, but some districts continue to allocate public money for publications issued by district councils under a total lack of transparency and disloyal competition conditions. During the „round table”, the legal expert Eugeniu Rîbca reiterated that the Law on privatization of public periodicals foresees three modalities for reorganising newspapers issued by district and municipal councils: reorganisation into „Official gazettes”, privatisation or liquidation.

Meanwhile, all state-funded publications must be re-registered and included in the Register of periodicals managed by the Ministry of Justice, and the official gazettes of districts, municipalities and territorial autonomous unit Găgăuzia, shall publish only legal and individual documents, adopted by local public administration bodies, as well as other information whose publication is foreseen by the legislation in force. Some chairpersons and advisors are against this law, risking being penalised. Corina Fusu, deputy chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee for culture, education, research, youth, sport and mass-media, declared that everyone should comply with the law: „While the deadline for law execution expired, certain district chairpersons and newspaper representatives come up with various arguments for delaying this process. They should understand this thing will not last forever.

Since February 2013, the financing of public periodicals from the state budget is illegal, and the newspaper management bodies should take quick measures to step into legacy”. On the other hand, Tamara Barosan, editor-in-chief of newspaper which is financed by Edineţ District Council, claims that the newspaper „Curierul de Edineţ” is the single source of information in the district: „Provided that we cease the newspaper activity, where will the inhabitants find out about the local events?”. To his turn, Petru Macovei, API Executive Director, said that journalists could privatise the newspaper or register an independent publication, continuing to inform the public, only without being dependant on the orders of district officials who make use of state-funded newspapers for promoting the image of local politicians. „It is totally inadmissible that a district chairperson, appointed by a political party, would use the state-funded newspaper to make own PR, as all inhabitants contribute to the formation of the budget, regardless of their political preferences.

According to Constitutional provisions, the public money is to be directed for informing, firstly, about legal documents of public interest, which is likely to be done through local „official gazettes”. But, if local budgets have additional resources and the counsellors decide that these should be directed for promoting local activities or events, this should be done under total transparency and loyal competition circumstances: through bids in which any mass-media institution can take part”, P. Macovei explained.

Elena Griţco, head of Division for Non-Commercial Organisations under the Ministry of Justice, and Pavel Budu, consultant in this direction, provided the participants to the „round table” with additional information and consultations regarding the necessary documents for re-organisation and re-registration of public periodicals, as well as with clear answers to the questions addressed. Diana Cucer, senior consultant in the Division for development of legal documents from the Ministry of Justice, spoke about the regime for publishing legal documents issued by local public authorities, including the draft law in this field. During the „round table”, there was the presentation and distribution of the guidelines entitled „20 questions and answers related to privatisation of public periodicals”, published by API with the assistance of Soros-Moldova Foundation, serving as instructions during the privatisation process.

The round table was organised under the project ”Assistance programme during the privatization of public periodicals”, implemented by API with the financial support of Mass-Media Programme of Soros-Moldova Foundation.