Republic of Moldova takes six TV channels off air
A special commission In the Republic of Moldova has suspended the licenses of six television stations, initially until February, citing false reports on events in the country and the war in Ukraine. Moldova must be "protected from propaganda and lies", Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spinu said. Commentators in neighbouring Romania take different views of the decision.
Time to take a stand
Deutsche Welle's Romanian Service welcomes the Commission's decision:
“The ban on pro-Russian propaganda is the culmination of a process of awareness that the Republic of Moldova and its government have gone through at great risk. From the increasingly fragile hope that neutrality could protect them, they now see the need to choose and clearly show which side they are on. Between war and peace, truth and lies, democracy and tyranny, there is no middle ground. ... There can be no turning back. If Russia were to take revenge in the Republic of Moldova, it would mean the destruction of this state and its people.”
How long will the state of emergency will last?
Censorship is censorship despite the intentions behind the ban, journalist Cătălin Tolontan writes in Libertatea:
“For Moscow, free rights and open debate in liberal societies are contemptible. We have valuable things to defend here, as the resurgence of Soviet hatred shows. That is why we should at least call censorship by its name. And this is exactly what is happening in Chișinău. Yes, censorship works in times of war, but it cannot be the purpose and meaning of a government. The Republic of Moldova has announced that the suspension of television licences will only apply during the state of emergency. In this part of the world, that could mean an eternity.”