The newsrooms of PRIME TV and PUBLIKA TV condemn the illegal and anti-democratic way of the government to impose censorship in the society which it wants to be European. After the whole society, the community of experts and the diplomatic environment were convinced of the falsity of the arguments used in October by the National Commission for Extraordinary Situations, to suspend the broadcast licenses of Prime and Publika TV stations for the period of the State of Emergency, at the end of the year, with a few hours until the end of the work week, through a letter signed by a resigned head of an institution undergoing a reorganization process, a new censorship mechanism was established in relation to our TV stations.

Without notifying the administration of the company, the holder of the broadcasting licenses for Prime TV and Publika TV, a decision was sent to all the cable operators in the country by which they are expressly asked not to receive the signal of our TV channels for broadcasting. Under new excuses invented about "dangers to the national security of the country", which have not been proven in any way so far, the government maintains censorship in the mass media even after the end of the State of Emergency, which ends on December 30, 2023.

Without taking a decision on this topic, the only legal body in the audiovisual field – the Audiovisual Council, resubmitted the letter to the media service distributors, including Moldtelecom, Starnet, Orange, Arax, etc.

We emphasize that the decision announced to the media distributors on December 29th was made on December 27th and kept secret until this time in relation to our company, which is directly targeted through that action. By this, the right of our loyal viewers is being obstructed, as it is about several hundred thousand people, subscribers of cable operators from the Republic of Moldova.

Our newsrooms have previously dismantled all the false information released in address to our TV stations by Prime Minister Dorin Recean and the Director of the Intelligence and Security Service. Prime TV and Publika TV have proven in fact that they acted balanced, fair and legal, a position confirmed by independent monitorings, but also by the lack of any content violation, which would have been found by the authority in the field - the Audiovisual Council.

In our activity, we have always been guided by the legislation in force, starting from the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, the Audiovisual Media Services Code, the Press Law, etc. All the thorough examinations, to which we were subjected by all competent institutions of the state, had only one result - everything is legal. Illegal and abusive, however, is the decision to keep our activity suspended, which for two months already has been causing considerable and irreparable financial damage, that makes it extremely difficult to pay employees' salaries, a source of livelihood for their families, who are put in complicated payment situations of bills in the cold season of the year.

Based on the obvious illegal nature of the decision to keep the broadcast licenses suspended, it will be challenged in court. We believe that the citizens of the Republic of Moldova need a free press, which offers quality content and its own product. We are counting on an adequate reaction from the society, including media NGOs, diplomatic missions accredited to Chisinau, that have become convinced in recent months of the way the free press is treated by the political factor of the country's leadership.

Prime TV and Publika TV’s editorial boards publicly address the Audiovisual Council to take a stance on the unprecedented situation created, where the mass media activity is clearly being abused.

In the following days, we will make written requests to the members of the Audiovisual Council to come up with clarifications regarding the state in which we have broadcasting licenses, but the activity of our institutions is restricted.

The existence of censorship in the mass media in a country that is starting the accession negotiations to the European Union is a clear act of sabotage of the European integration process and will remain a black stain in the history of this country's democracy. We hope that the supreme interest of the country’s citizens and of the Republic of Moldova, to be part of the European Union, in accordance with the accession criteria, will prevail in relation to the narrow political interest, but also the financial and economic interest of some restricted groups of people.