Open letter to the Diplomatic Missions accredited in the Republic of Moldova
Publika TV
For the attention of
Diplomatic Missions accredited in the Republic of Moldova,
Official Representations of the strategic development partners of the Republic of Moldova,
Bureaus of European and International institutions in the Republic of Moldova.
We are addressing this open letter in the hope to warn you about a situation that has been perpetuated for a long time but, due to the vehemence and aggression it has reached lately, can no longer remain unaddressed. We can already call it a defamation campaign targeting the TV channels Publika and Prime, together with their staff, carried out by two political parties in Moldova: Dignity and Truth Platform Party (PPDA) and Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS).
For reasons that we will refrain from identifying, PPDA and PAS are turning uncomfortable press in a source of conflict and self-victimization. In doing so, the PPDA and PAS leaders are employing a series of dirty tactics, which have already become part of their strategy and aggressive campaigning, exemplified through the following categories of actions:
● virulentdefamationandcontinuousvilificationofTVchannelsPublikaTV and Prime throughout various public manifestations, addresses, various endeavours and premeditated actions;
● repeatedlyinsultingemployeesofthetwoTVchannelsbyattributingthem names and labels incompatible with the idea of “decency”;
● direct and indirect incitement to violent actions targeting the two TV channels, including even the physical destruction of their headquarters or assaulting their employees;
● threatening journalists of the two TV channels with the possibility of “consequences” and “judicial actions” during various gatherings, public conferences and TV shows;
● tolerating physical and verbal violence against reporters of the TV channels by not explicitly condemning the repeated aggressive behaviors towards their teams during manifestations and protests publicly assumed by the above-mentioned political groups;
● spreading false, misleading and manipulative information regarding the activity of the two TV channels and of their employees in various environments: professional, social, political, diplomatic and so on;
● suggesting that the two TV channels are practicing a media lynching targeting the leaders of PPDA and PAS;
● forbidding the access of Publika and Prime journalists to manifestations organized by PPDA and PAS, although initially inviting them;
● avoiding the participation to TV shows of the two channels by falsely invoking the media lynching in order to be able to victimize afterwards and accusing the two TV channels of discriminatory treatment.
Under such conditions, Publika TV and Prime are asking all the persons exposed to disinformation campaigns carried out by PPDA and PAS, together with their leaders, to regard these endeavours with the necessary caution and exercise their objectivity and equidistance.
Publika TV and Prime are fully able to easily demount any false accusation and provide anyone interested in finding the truth with the necessary evidence: video materials, links, printed materials and other type of evidence to support the above-described situation.
We believe that any differences of opinions, approach and vision as regards certain facts, happenings and events represent the basis of the press’ freedom of the speech in a democratic society. However, strategies that are targeting the uncomfortable press such as those employed by PPDA and PAS are, in fact, targeting the very idea of democracy.
Through these practices, PPDA and PAS are acting against the principles embraced by the European political family that the two Moldovan organizations pretend to be part of.