Government control of public media in Moldova

Background

Larisa Manole and her colleagues are or were television journalists at the “Teleradio-Moldova” (TRM), which was the only national television and radio station in Moldova at the time of events.

TRM was subjected to political control by the ruling party. The management was staffed by Government loyalists, only a few trusted journalists were allowed to report political news, and opposition parties were given almost no space to express their opinions.

In 2002 TRM staff organised a strike, demanding the abolition of censorship at the channel. A new law was passed transforming TRM from a state to public company, after which the staff of the old company were required to pass an examination. All the journalists at the news department lost their job, as well as the majority of the journalists who participated in the strike.

Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights

The Strasbourg court found a violation of the right to freedom of expression. The Court ruled that there was a significant bias towards reporting on the activities of the President and Government in TRM's television news and other programming. There was also evidence of a policy of restricting discussion or mention of certain topics because they were considered to be politically sensitive or to reflect badly in some way on the Government.

The domestic legislation had been flawed since it did not provide sufficient safeguards.

Shortcomings in Implementation

Although the judgment in the case dates from 2009, the Moldovan government has not provided any public documents about its implementation since 2011.

-        Case summary on Hudoc Exec

-        Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights