Companies are pressured to withdraw advertising from media outlets critical of government, publisher says

Val Butnaru, the director of the newspaper “Jurnal de Chisinau” and the owner of the internet television channel Jurnal TV, states that the authorities are forcing companies to withdraw their adverts from the media outlets that are critical of the government. In a statement titled “Save Jurnal TV!”, Butnaru calls the attention of the EU countries' embassies and international organizations to this “threat looming over the independent press”, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to Butnaru, his paper began losing advertising in the election campaign. But things worsened after April 7, when the pages of the newspaper and especially the TV channel were reporting heavily on the social unrest following the parliamentary elections. Then many of his clients “received threats, and very aggressive, too, from the authorities”. Even the clients that had contracts with a lifetime of one year were forced to withdraw, Butnaru said. The most recent case of this kind occurred two days ago. “The last client that had the courage to keep his banner on Jurnal TV was threatened with serious problems in their business if they didn't withdraw their advertising without delay. And so it happened, despite an agreement providing for a half-year long cooperation”, says Val Butnaru. “Even if we depend entirely on advertising for our television's revenue, we understand the reaction of the businessmen. It's not their fault that they can't do business freely in a dictatorship”, he added. The publisher thinks this pressure is exerted in order to annihilate the independent press. “The Communists are using the lowest methods to silence us. They are afraid of the truth and are ready to eradicate the free journalism and replace it with the slavish Todercanism (a reference to Valentin Todercan, the president of the national broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova) ”, Butnaru concluded.