:: oleg brega (diverse sources) / 04.08.04
The conflict between staff and management at Moldova state television and radio began in November 2003 after a legal amendment broke up the existing company and created a new “public service.” Many voiced concern about the one-third cut in staff and the new company's lack of independence from the dictatorial government. On 27 July, 70 salaried staff formed the “Committee for the defense of Human and Professional Values” and began a non-stop strike, calling for the resignation of their bosses. The police responded to the legally authorized demonstrations with savagery, attacking children and beating one woman unconscious.
>> 29 July 2004: Communique from The Committee for the Defense of Human and Professional Values (CADUP)
The CADUP protests started on 27 July. Our demands were made public on the same day. Despite this there have been no steps toward dialogue from the administration of the State Company “Teleradio Moldova” until now. The only response we received has been the ongoing abuse and violation of fundamental human rights and liberties. Starting at 22:00 on 27 July, 19 protestors were illegally denied access to the territory of the State Company, without any justification whatsoever.
In addition to this abuse we can add the repressive actions of the police against the demonstrators. Despite the fact that the Mayor’s office of Chisinau authorized us to carry out a non-stop protest in front of the Radio House, with the explicit permission to install tents for an all-night vigil, the police and security forces would not permit the peaceful demonstrations to take place without interference and tried to forcefully prevent the protestors from installing the tents.
On 29 July around 19:30, while being visited by William Hill and Claus Neukirch, the representatives of OSCE in Moldova, the protestors tried one more time to raise the tent. The police and security forces (who were both in uniform and in civilian dress) circled the protestors and made their way through them, trampling the tent underfoot. The police did not take any notice when they were presented with the legal authorization from the Mayor’s office to raise the tents, they gave no legal documentation or verbal justification of their actions, and they refused to identify themselves. During an ambush the police ran off in an unknown direction with two of the tents. Although everything that happened was recorded on video, the representatives of the police maintain that none of their subordinates confiscated the tents.
This incident raises the problem of a lack of a state of law in the Republic of Moldova. The representatives of the forces of order trampled on the law in the presence of foreign diplomats, and ignored the legal document which permitted the demonstration to take place in front of the building of the State Company. They turned to repressive tactics and, with a complete disregard for the rights of the protestors, they used physical force to prevent the installation of tents – through which the protestors wanted to do nothing more than to prepare the location of the demonstration for the night vigil.
The repressive actions of the police constitute serious violations of fundamental rights and liberties, and they have created a feeling of imminent threat and fear among the ranks of the protestors. The behavior of the police shows that in the Republic of Moldova the law can be violated anytime at will precisely by those people who have a constitutional duty to defend it. These action call into question whether in Moldova there exists a state of law or whether, as it increasingly seems to be the case, we are witnesing the creation of a police state. We call upon the District Attorney’s office to investigate these actions and we ask members of civil society to denounce these illegal, unconstitutional, repressive and inhuman actions by the forces of order against peaceful protestors.
>> 1 August 2004: Communique from the Union of Moldovan Journalists
We want to bring it to the attention of public opinion in Moldova and internationally that on the evening of 31 July, 2004 there was broadcast on the National Radio the news that there is a bomb in the Radio House. The National radio immediately interrupted its transmission. The protesting journalists who were on the 5th floor were dragged outside the building by force by the special forces of the police. Massive police forces then pushed the entire group of protestors off the territory in front of the Radio House despite the fact that the protestors were authorized by the Mayor’s office of Chisinau to conduct a non-stop demonstration. Around 01:00 in the morning the journalists and the people who came to show their support were already evicted on the street, and the Radio House was occupied in its totality by the security forces, the police and the Carabinieri. The bomb was never found, of course. On 1 August, 2004 Radio Moldova has not yet resumed its broadcast …
We ask all those who have connections to international organizations to bring to their attention these unconstitutional and undemocratic actions of the communist regime in Chisinau.
>> 2 August 2004: Communique from The Committee for the Defense of Human and Professional Values (CADUP)
In conformity with the Mayor’s authorization 726-d and 729-d for the non-stop demonstration in front of the Radio House, installing tents is necessary because the demonstration is around the clock and staying overnight under the open sky and on the cold and wet ground represents a health risk for the protestors. Several journalists have already fallen ill because they were sleeping on the ground after the police prevented raising tents. Taking this into account CADUP installed a tent yesterday on 1 August, 2004 around 15:00.
The police forces tried to prevent this, but the protesting journalists together with television viewers and radio listeners who came to support us would not permit the police to advance. After about 20 minutes the police retreated to a distance of 3 meters from the protestors forming a chain around them. The police forces numbered between 100-150 people. CADUP and the vice mayor of Chisinau, Gheorghe Susarenco, made it known to the police that raising the tents is legal and in conformity with the authorization from the Mayor’s office. Gheorghe Susanreco personally asked the police to bring it to the attention of the supreme commander of the armed forces, the President of Moldova, that the tent was legally installed.
Several hundred protestors continued defending the tent. Around 16:30 two detachments of police suddenly appeared from the behind the Radio House and quickly advanced toward the demonstrators – thus bringing the total number of the police to around 300. The police attacked the crowd hitting the peaceful protestors with their batons, all the time trying to advance toward the tent. The protestors attempted to hold their ground and the vice mayor Gheorghe Susarenco, who was near the tent, repeatedly asked the police to stop and to respect the law and, together with the deputy Vlad Cubreacov, he tried to physically block the police from advancing toward the tent where there were two children present inside. The police was told about the presence of the children, and asked to immediately back down from the confrontation. The police continued advancing, using their batons, finally bringing the tent to the ground. The children were defended by Anatol Rurac (Union of artists) who together with several other people succeeded to pull them out of the tent and to get them away from the crowd.
While advancing toward the tent the police brutally beat a 19 year old woman, Natalia Slivciuc, to a state of unconsciousness, causing her a cerebral hemorrhage. Other people were beaten to the ground and dragged by their hands and legs. After getting their hands on the tent the police ran in retreat behind the Radio House. As a result of the police attack, 4 protestors were brought to the hospital (Natalia Slivciuc, Stefana Mocanu, Vasile Cebotaru and an unidentified boy - with injuries ranging from cerebral hemorrhage to a broken leg) as well as one police officer. Three persons were detained by the police: the municipal councilwoman Eugenia Starcea, Melnic Alexandru from Calalasi (who was beaten and robbed, the police confiscating his mobile phone and his money), and Nicolae Bolocan from the commune Rusestii Noi. The police commissioner refused to confirm their detention. Further details can be obtained from the lawyer Vitalie Nagacevschi … Everything that happened was broadcast in direct on the radio station “Voice of Basarabia” and recorded on video and audio.
-- translated by Joanne Richardson
-- you may contact the "strike committee" (  tvmgreva@yahoo.com), the union of moldovan journalists ( ujm@moldnet.md), or oleg brega ( ob@tantal.md) for further information and to offer your support |
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:: Resolution of the meeting 08.08.04
o.brega/CADUP - 12.08.04 01:33
Resolution
In 2002, as a result of the protests of about 400 employees of the State Company “Teleradio Moldova”, gathered in a Strike Committee against the censorship established at the State Company “Teleradio Moldova” by the present political authority, in April and in September 2002, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted, the 1280 and 1303 Resolutions regarding the activity of the democratic institutions in the Republic of Moldova, by which PACE, in fact, requested the Republic of Moldova to amend the law on audiovisual and to adopt a law, by which the status of the State Company “Teleradio Moldova” (further referred to as the State Company) would be transformed into an independent public body (further referred to as the Public Company). Two bills that stipulated the transformation of the Company were proposed in the Parliament, one of the opposition, which had been developed by the APEL Association and analyzed and approved by the Council of Europe, and the other of the President of the Republic of Moldova, which violated the recommendations of the Council of Europe and looked rather like a simulation of the transformation of the State Company into an independent public body. On July 26, 2002, the Parliament adopted the bill proposed by the President of the Republic of Moldova, making the transformation process of the State Company “Teleradio Moldova” rather doubtful. The procedure adopted by the authorities did not have the intention to reorganize the state Company into a Public Company, but to liquidate the State Company and to create a Public Company, to organize a contest for the vacancies at the Pubic Company. This procedure has proven to be one of the heaviest procedures chosen for the transformation of the State Company into a Public Company. At the same time, the procedure adopted by the authorities assumes keeping to a series of principles stipulated by the legislation in force, which take into account the parallel existence of the two Companies for a period of time and which are based on a clear distinction between the two Companies, including the management and the budgets of the two Companies (the fact that has not been observed during the transformation of the State Company into a Public Company).
The journalists from the State Company, gathered under the Committee against censorship in the electronic media (the successor of the Strike Committee), as well as journalists from other written and electronic media institutions, the civil society of the Republic of Moldova, international media organizations, and the political parties in opposition within two years since the adoption of the law have repeatedly expressed , their concern with the doubtful and not conforming to the European standards manner, in which the transformation of the State Company “Teleradio Moldova” was conceived and later implemented. Within 2004, a lot of declarations were made about the worsening of the media situation in the Republic of Moldova and especially about the tendency to maintain political control over the State Company, the risk of eliminating the inconvenient journalists and the lack of transparency in the transformation process of the State Company into an independent public body. During the so-called contest for the vacancies at the Public Company, this kind of declarations was made weekly. At the same time, a series of unlawful actions undertaken both by the State Company and the Public Company during the transformation process were discovered, and, as a result, starting July 15, a number of official intimations have been addressed to the administration of the two Companies, the Parliament, and the Prosecutor’s Office.
On July 27, 2004, when the contest for the vacancies was over and the results were announced, the fears that have been expressed before regarding the elimination of inconvenient journalists along with the transformation of the Company “Teleradio Moldova” became true. The human and professional dignity of many journalists was affected during the contest (a representative of the Contest Committee, Mircea Surdu, resigned from the Committee in protest), the same journalists that since 2002 had protested against censorship and had requested the transformation of the company into an independent public body, who were also joined by other colleagues and the heads of the news departments of radio and television, and not least by the head of the legal service of the State Company, and formed the Committee for Defense of Human and Professional Dignity (CADUP), organized a press conference, at which announced a protest against the abuse, unlawful actions, and eliminations executed by the administration of the State Company and by the administration of the Public Company.
At the press conference it was found out that although a representative of the Contest Committee had resigned, the Committee continued working without him, the fact that generated a spontaneous protest, the journalists that participated in the press conference went to the Radio House in order to picket its building and the meeting room of the Contest Committee. The picket of the meeting room continued with the request to the members of the Contest Committee, the administration of the State Company, and the administration of the Public Company to resign. Against the background of the rising discontent, the journalists declared the launching of protest actions for an indefinite period of time, until the formulated requests were satisfied, by publicly announcing them on the very same day. Although the requests of the protesting journalists were communicated, filed, and signed by the representatives of administration every day, the competent authorities did not reply to the announced intimations until now.
Since that moment and until now, the journalists continue their protests, gathered under CADUP, non-stop. The protest actions have been organized in front of the Radio House, as well as inside, in the meeting room. It is worth mentioning that the entry into the State Company was restricted by a verbal interdiction of the President of the Public Company, Ilie Telescu, for 19 protesting journalists, who had been dismissed from their positions by a written order signed by Ilie Telescu and whose professional identity cards had been taken away. The interdiction was also valid for the media, for the civil society, and for visitors. Starting on July27, 22:00 o’clock, the enumerated categories could only leave the building.
The protests have been and continue to be of a peaceful character, although the police have applied force against the protesting journalists. In the night of July 31 to August 1, basing on the information that there could be a bomb in the building, the police used force to evacuate 13 protesting journalists that remained in the building, as well as two MPs, who were promised to be granted access to the building after the necessary investigations were performed. In spite of all these promises, the access to the building is not allowed to the strikers even now, and the information about the existence of a bomb has been neither confirmed nor denied, although on the second day the administration and the employees on duty could enter the building of the Radio House.
Starting with July 28, the protests of the journalists were authorized by the Mayoralty of Chisinau. As the protests continued non-stop, the journalists tried several times to put up tents for health protection and safety reasons, especially at night and during the rain, which was allowed by an authorization of the Mayoralty of Chisinau. The police groups intervened every time by attacking the strikers and applying force. They took away the tents, motivating their actions by the existence of orders of the MIA and the Prosecutor’s Office that did not allow putting up tents, although, according to the existing legislation, neither the orders of the MIA nor the ones of the Prosecutor’s Office can suspend or cancel the decision of the Mayoralty of Chisinau to authorize protests. The illegal actions of the police, “prophylaxis measures” by its representatives, have been registered on a video tape and contain scenes of extreme violence, especially the ones dated August 1, when two children could have been hurt, but the police would not react in any way to the subpoenas of a Mayoralty representative to stop the attacks. On August 1, the first CADUP resolution was adopted and a tent was put up for a few hours.
Also the police, in uniforms and in civil dress, took brutal measures and destroyed in the night of August 6 to 7 the protest place arranged by the journalists. They tore up and destroyed all the placards by throwing them over the fence, in the street, broke several state flags of the Republic of Moldova, destroyed an improvised press center in the form of a tent, threw on the ground, in the mud, all the food and water reserves of the strikers. These actions have also been registered on tape. Besides the violent actions of the police, the central public authorities of Chisinau have launched a misinformation campaign of the public opinion and a campaign of disparaging the peaceful protest manifestations of the journalists, especially through “Radio Moldova” and “Moldova 1” TV channel. For detailed information regarding the events that took place one can refer to the press releases and other documents made public by the CADUP between July 27 and August 8, 2004.
Taking into consideration the above-said, the Committee for Defense of Human and Professional Dignity, as well as TV spectators and radio listeners, gathered together with the protesting journalists, expressing their solidarity with parents, teachers, students, and orphan children from the Romanian schools in Transnistrian region, protesting against the unlawful actions and abuses committed by the administration of the State Company “Teleradio Moldova”, against the misdeeds, acts of violence, vandalism, and savage attacks of the police guided the orders of the central state administration, condemning the burning of the door of the apartment of the journalist Viorica Cucereanu, declares the following:
• The state of law has been compromised in the Republic of Moldova, as a result of threatening the orders of the public local administration by the central public administration.
• By applying violence and vandalism, the police continue to suppress the peaceful protest manifestations of the journalists that take place legally and are authorized by the Mayoralty of Chisinau, which is a severe violation of the fundamental human rights and freedoms.
• The transformation of the State Company “Teleradio Moldova” takes place in an arbitrary manner, with a gross and regular violation of the legislation in force (The law on the national public institution of audiovisual, the Civil Code, the Labor Code), contradicts to the democratic norms and the European standards.
Under these circumstances, CADUP submits the following requests, which were partially presented in the anterior press releases and in the resolution of August 1, 2004:
1. To stop any kind of intimidation, repression, and suppression of the peaceful protest actions by the police, to let arrange a place for the protest, including putting up of tents, and to observe the authorization orders of the Mayoralty of Chisinau, to return the stolen objects and to repair the damages caused by the violent actions of the police, the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the events that took place, and the legal instances to punish the guilty.
2. To cancel the 321-c and 324-c orders, according to which 19 journalists have been dismissed and to grant an immediate access of all the employees of the State Company “Teleradio Moldova” to their working places.
3. To allocate one hour of broadcasting per day on the national radio and TV for the entire protesting period, to react to all the claims that have been forwarded until the present day, the Liquidation Committee, the Supervisory Board, and the Mass–Media Committee of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova to initiate a dialog with the representatives of journalists.
4. The Parliament of the Republic of Moldova to meet at an extraordinary session in order to examine the schools issue in Transnistrian region and the situation at the “Teleradio Moldova” Company.
5. To dismiss V. Tabirta and S. Batog from their management positions at the State Company and together with I. Telescu to dismiss them from managing the Public Company for their abuse, incompetence, and violations of the legislation on the establishment of the Public Company.
6. To cancel all the documents issued by these three persons in the name of the State Company as documents issued by people who are official managers and to make them return all the remunerations received and expenditures performed from the budget of State Company.
7. To investigate the events regarding the xenophobe attitude of the President of the Contest Committee of the Public Company, Victor Andon, towards several candidates of Russian origin or Russian-speaking candidates.
8. To cancel the contest for vacancies at “Teleradio Moldova” Public Company, which takes place illegally before the establishment and the registration of the Public Company and to dismiss the Contest Committee.
9. To return all the remunerations received and the expenditures performed by the Contest Committee of the Public Company from the budget of the State Company.
10. To cancel the dismissal from the State Company and the employment by transfer at the Public Company as illegal, since the transfer procedure cannot be used once they have chosen the way of liquidating the State Company, establishing the Public Company, and organizing an employment contest.
11. To exclude form the new individual labor contract the following stipulations: from the point 3 letter o) on “the execution of any indication or order of the Employer that is directly related to the functional obligations”, and from the point 4, letter d) on “the right of the employer to make the employee accountable for the harming of the professional reputation of the Employer”, since these are totalitarian stipulations that violate the legislation in force.
12. To stop the procedure of transformation of the State Company into a Public Company because it violates the national legislation and contradicts to the European norms and standards. To revise in an express manner the structure of the Supervisory Board in order to ensure a complete and fair representation of the society and the public interest, and not of the political authority – in a proportion of two thirds, as it is now.
13. The Parliament to approve of a new procedure of reorganization of the State Company into a Public Company based on the bill developed by APEL, proposed in the Parliament by the parliamentary opposition, examined and approved by the Council of Europe.
14. The Council of Europe to send special reporters for the entire period of reorganization of “Teleradio Moldova” Company in order to supervise this process in the interest of the Republic of Moldova.
15. The Council of Europe to carry out a special investigation regarding the abuses committed by the state administration of the Republic of Moldova against peaceful protesters on the one hand, and the non-observance by the state administration of the orders of local public authorities (726-d and 729-d orders of Chisinau Mayoralty regarding the authorization of the protest actions) on the other hand.
16. The Municipal Council of Chisinau to take all the necessary measures in order to determine the Main Police Station to act legally and not to forbid in any way the unfolding of the peaceful protests in front of the Radio House.
17. Taking into account the created situation, in order to prevent the destabilization of the situation in the Republic of Moldova, we request the civil society, the political parties and the international community to take an attitude and to determine the political authorities of Chisinau to stop the suppressing of the peaceful protest meetings, to stop the oppression and intimidation of journalists, to observe the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, to observe the obligations assumed by the Republic of Moldova on the international level, as well as to observe the trilogy of the Council of Europe: “Democracy, State of Law, Human Rights”.
18. We request the entire society of the Republic of Moldova to show their solidarity and to protest against dictatorship, to protect the democratic values, the freedom of expression, the freedom to meet peacefully, the freedom of the press, the state of law, and the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova.
The resolution is available to be signed by all who support the actions of the protesting journalists. The protests of the journalists will continue non – stop in front of the Radio House, Chisinau, str. Miorita 1, until the claims are satisfied.
The lists of the supporting signatures are attached.
Chisinau, August 8, 2004.
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