On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, journalists and media experts from Chisinau picketed the Parliament Building to draw the MPs’ attention to the problems experienced in the field, IPN reports.

The participants improvised a pen to depict the limited access of journalists to information of public interest. The journalist of the paper “Ziarul de Garda” Sergiu Bejenari said he stayed in the improvised pen to draw attention to the fact that the journalists have to almost daily write letters to the authorities to get information.

“Why should the journalists write letters to obtain information from Parliament, from state institutions to find out information about the property of MPs? Why should we write so many letters when this information should be accessible online to everyone,” said the journalist.

Nadine Gogu, executive director of the Independent Journalism Center, said the delay in adopting, in the final reading, the Law on Access to Information and the new Broadcasting Code hamper the investigative journalists in their work. The invoking by the authorities of the fact that the information asked for by journalists contains personal data is a violation of the law.

Speaker of Parliament Andrian Candu went out and said that a working group will be constituted to formulate proposals for improving the legislation on the mass media, according to the European standards. “I admit that there are particular shortcomings. There is yet a lot to be done at legislative level,” he stated.

World Press Freedom Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 1993.