Moldova Bans Russian Media to Counter Propaganda Over Ukraine

Moldovan president Maia Sandu on Sunday promulgated the Informational Security Law, which will ban the broadcast in Moldova of Russian TV news and political analysis.

The law, designed to counter Russian propaganda about the war in Ukraine, says that the ban will still apply after the expiration of the state of emergency established in Moldova after Russia invaded Ukraine.

The normative act prohibits news and analytical broadcasts from countries that have not ratified the Convention on Transfrontier Television.

It stipulates that 50 per cent of TV content must come from EU countries, the United States and those states that have ratified the Convention.

"The law comes into force this week and [Russian] propaganda will be sanctioned much more harshly. Misinforming media organizations will be gradually penalized, from fines to the withdrawal of the right to broadcast advertising," the head of the Audiovisual Council in Moldova, Liliana Vitu, said.

The administrator of the TV 6 channel, Dumitru Chitoroaga, told BIRN that the law was not necessary and was mainly aimed at impressing the West.

"I do not see why such a law is needed. It's probably a move of the current government to show how pro-Western they are […] from now on, Moldovan citizens will no longer only partially follow Russian posts but will follow the Russian channels entirely on the internet," he said.

The pro-Russian Socialist Party deputy Vasile Bolea told BIRN that this ban was a method of censorship and will not have a positive effect.

"Any attempt to forbid citizens from watching an analytical show is in vain. On the contrary, it will determine the citizen who wants to look at it to find alternatives. Moreover, we live in the internet age, and we...