The Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections requires the CCA to cancel its decision to sanction the IPNA Teleradio-Moldova and Publika TV

Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections expresses its disagreement with the CCA decision to sanction the IPNA Teleradio-Moldova and Publika TV for having broadcast civic education video spots and calls to active participation in the electoral process, during the campaign for the constitutional referendum of 5 September 2010. CCA decision is a defiance of the freedom of expression of mass-media and citizens’ right to be informed and to exercise their vote in a free and conscious manner.

At the same time, Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections considers that CCA decision further deepens the confusion which has been previously created among the public by CEC decision to register as referendum participants political parties which urged the citizens to boycott the voting of 5 September 2010. This is an alarming state of things particularly because such confusions come up right at the moment when the level of citizens’ civic activism is very low. Thus, the danger is that CCA decision of 15 September 2010  will suppress the civic spirit of citizens,  public organizations, and mass-media that  promote voter education activities and might cease such projects in the future because of feeling intimidated. We believe that civic and voter education actions have to be encouraged by all possible means and not sanctioned, if we want to promote European values and citizens’ freedoms and not the narrow interests of certain political forces.

The Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections draws the CCA attention that there is a huge difference between the definition of „electoral propaganda” (preparation and distribution of information seeking to determine the voters to vote for one or another electoral contestant) and that of „voter education” (providing information to the citizens regarding the political and electoral processes within the country  so that they can exercise a conscious and free vote) as specified in the Electoral Code of the Republic of Moldova.  Besides this, art. 47, para. 8, of the Electoral Code , states the restrictions regarding electoral agitation materials on the election day and the day before the elections, but not regarding voter education ones. Considering this, the Coalition is perplexed and deeply concerned by the fact that the CCA interprets in such a manner even the most unequivocal provisions of the laws in force. Moreover, the Coalition finds it alarming that the CCA which itself committed a whole range of Electoral Code infringements during the electoral campaign, now sanctions the radiobroadcasters which did not admit deviations from the electoral legislation and ignores cases when some radiobroadcasters really admitted violations of law by broadcasting electoral agitation spots on 4 September.

Starting from the above mentioned, the Coalition requires that CCA cancels its decision of 15 September 2010 to sanction the IPNA Teleradio-Moldova and Publika TV, expressing its belief that such decisions are jeopardizing the establishment in Republic of Moldova of the democratic values that should lay at the basis of the development of any electoral process.

The Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections urges the entire society, the political class, the mass-media to take action and to oppose any attempt of limiting the citizen’s fundamental right to be informed and the right of the media institutions to inform. Thus, we shall contribute to the recovery of the social environment in which the elections are conducted in a truly free and fair manner.

The Board of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections