Mounting Pressure on Moldova’s Independent Press

Victoria Dodon in Moldova

Editor-in-chief, Independent Journalism Center Moldova

Friday, 2 May, 2025

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Moldova is experiencing a rise in attacks, threats and pressure on journalists, accompanied by potentially damaging legislative proposals.

Media experts warn that the existing legal framework was not only failing to protect journalists but that its application remained weak. Journalists in the autonomous region of Gaugazia and the breakaway territory of Transnistria face particular impediments to their work.

“Russian propaganda is stirring up hatred to an unprecedented level.”

Natalia Zăhărescu is a journalist from the investigative Ziarul de Gardă newspaper, long targeted by powerful politicians and oligarchs.

Early last month, Zăhărescu was subjected to intimidation and insults while attempting to interview former Găgăuzia governor Irina Vlah. This was followed by an organised campaign of online abuse targeting both her and the paper.

"We see that hate speech against the press, spread by politicians, reaches the masses and has worrying effects,” she told IWPR. “I believe that such situations are intended to discourage honest and independent journalism. Fortunately, we are not as easily scared as some politicians would like.”

Zaharescu stressed that pushback was important, adding “[we] report the facts accurately and share stories about intimidating attempts like this. At the same time, Ziarul de Garda decided to take Irina Vlah and her party to court, asking for public apologies”.

Independent media in Gaugazia has come under particular pressure. The region has deeply rooted ties to Moscow and is dominated by Russian disinformation campaigns and anti-Western rhetoric. Outlets that challenge local politics and narratives face delegitimisation, accusations of being "foreign agents”, and difficulties in gaining public trust.

“When journalists are eyed with suspicion, the public is deprived transparency.”

Nokta.md in Gaugazia has faced numerous attacks against its journalists. Last month, its director Mihail Sirkeli was targeted by multiple cyberattacks in just one day, including 380 calls from unknown numbers made to his phone.

He believes the attack was in retaliation for his support of his fellow journalists from Ziarul de Garda.

"It was more of an emotional reaction and, obviously, an attempt to scare me," Sirkeli said. "What worries us right now is our physical safety. We don't think we're in any immediate danger, but we're being careful and doing everything we can to protect ourselves."

Sirkeli described an atmosphere of growing hostility towards independent media in Gagauzia.

"Both Russian propaganda and local propaganda serving Russian interests are stirring up hatred to an unprecedented level,” he said. “If this continues, we can expect very serious problems for the press in the future."

The Association of Independent Press of Moldova identified 66 instances of attacks and threats in 2024, a significant figure for a relatively small media community in a country with a population of only 2.4 million people.

Against this backdrop, two legislative initiatives have further heightened the already tense mood. At the end of March, six lawmakers from the pro-Russia in Communist and Socialist Bloc registered a draft law that would regulate "foreign agents in the Republic of Moldova". This seems to be inspired by repressive laws promoted by autocratic regimes such as Russia.

The authors argued that the draft bill "aims to strengthen national security and protect sovereignty".

However, 135 civil society organisations condemned the move in a public statement, calling it "an attack on civil society, the independent press, and the right of citizens to be accurately informed".

"Even if this draft law has slim chances of passing, it still reveals a tendency to view any outside funding as suspicious and to treat legitimate public interest work with distrust,” said Vadim Vieru, programme director of Promo-Lex, a democracy and human rights NGO. “This approach creates a chilling effect, because branding people or groups as ‘foreign agents’ has been used in other places to stifle open debate and weaken civic engagement.”

Meanwhile, the unrecognised parliament in the breakaway territory of  Transnistria wants to impose fines on so-called foreign reporters – which includes Moldovan journalists - who enter without having first arranged accreditation. The Tiraspol regime says this is because they want to combat misinformation, but this has been publicly condemned in Chișinău as a tool of repression. The region remains an unsafe area for journalists, with several cases of illegal detention reported in the last year alone.

"Their plan intensifies an already restrictive climate,” Vieru explained. “Journalists end up facing hostile or arbitrary procedures that discourage them from reporting on the realities of life there. When journalists are forced to worry about detentions or denials of access, the public is deprived of nuanced insights into a region where information is often hard to obtain and verify.”

Vieru said he feared the escalating mistrust of independent voices.

“When journalists and NGOs are eyed with suspicion for doing their jobs or for receiving international support, the public is ultimately deprived of transparency, accountability, and informed dialogue,” he continued. “Such proposals reveal a lingering fear of critical scrutiny, whether in Chișinău or Tiraspol, and cast doubt on the commitment to values that protect open inquiry and constructive debate.”

For their part, journalists have called on the government to take proactive action on threats to media freedom.

"The authorities should contribute to combating hate speech and defamation against the press, set an example of transparency and openness in their communication with the press, and investigate cases of attacks on the media in a fair and effective manner,” Zaharescu said.

A public appeal in April supported by nine media organisations warned that “the special guarantees for the protection of the media, currently enshrined in the national legal framework, are insufficient and ineffective.

This finding is supported both by the lack of practical application of the legal mechanisms and by the proliferation of impunity, particularly among certain categories of politically motivated perpetrators with hostile attitudes towards the press.”

As a candidate country for EU membership, Moldova also needs to deal with any loopholes in its system of legal safeguards as soon as possible.

The Ministry of Culture intends to develop an action plan dedicated to the safety of journalists, which will include a legislative review and the development of a monitoring mechanism.

"The plan will serve as a practical tool for strengthening inter-institutional cooperation and creating a safer environment for journalistic activity," Andrei Chistol, state secretary of the ministry, told IWPR.

At an initial public debate on the subject in Parliament on April 1, Liliana Nicolaescu-Onofrei, a lawmaker from the ruling party and chair of the media committee acknowledged that "legal provisions are not working very well".

She announced that work was also planned for a bill to support the safety and protection of journalists.

Adela Răileanu, deputy chair of the media committee and a member of parliament for the Bloc of Communists and Socialists, said that such an initiative was necessary.

“But it will be insufficient as long as it is not applied uniformly to all journalists, regardless of their editorial line,” she told IWPR.

“In the current political climate, there is a risk that the new law will only protect those who support the government. Others — those who reflect reality and serve the public interest — will remain vulnerable, without any protection.”