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Like the now-closed "Kommersant Moldovy", our own "The Tiraspol Times" (shown here) can also not be legally sold in Chisinau

STRASBOURG (Tiraspol Times) - The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg unanimously decided that Moldova violated Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights when it closed an opposition-leaning newspaper for writing articles critical of the government. The article specifies that freedom of expression is a basic human right. Government attempts to suppress it by enforcing censorship and newspaper closings are illegal.

With the latest judgment by the European Court of Human Rights, Moldova stands out as one of the last countries in Europe to impose state censorship and close newspapers which print articles that are critical of the government.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case of the banned newspaper Kommersant Moldovy versus the Republic of Moldova. The Court held unanimously that Moldova had violated the European Convention on Human Rights, and ordered Moldova to pay compensation to the owners of the closed newspaper.

Closed for printing critical articles

The applicant, Kommersant Moldovy, was legally registered in Moldova's capital, Chisinau, as a newspaper. Between June and September 2001, the newspaper published a series of articles criticising the Moldovan government for inept actions in regards to Pridnestrovie, which it calls Transnistria. It also gave a voice to views by the PMR government by reproducing harsh criticism of the Moldovan Government by Igor Smirnov and other local and foreign leaders.

In November 2001, the government of Moldova retaliated by using its domestic court system to order the closure of the newspaper. It claimed that the critical articles had “endangered the territorial integrity of Moldova, national security and public safety and created the potential for disorder and crime, violating Article 32 of the Constitution.” It also said that this could be sanctioned by the closure of a newspaper. But the Moldovan court system did not specify which expression or phrase constituted a threat to national security. It maintained only that the articles were liable under Article 27 of Moldova's own Press Act and ordered Kommersant to pay court fees for its own closure. Kommersant appealed, but failed. The judgment was upheld on appeal. The newspaper was forced to register as a new company, under a new name, and open as a whole new entity. To this very day - nearly six years later - the original Kommersant Moldovy has not been able to resume publication under its original name.

In 2002, it took its case to the European Court of Human Rights. Kommersant complained that by ordering the closure of its newspaper the domestic courts had violated its right to freedom of expression. The European Court agreed. It said that in their decisions, the domestic courts did not discuss the necessity of the interference to the applicant’s rights they imposed. It noted, in particular, that they did not specify which elements of the applicant’s articles were problematic and in what way they endangered national security and the territorial integrity of the country or defamed the President and the country. In short, Moldova's actions amounted to censorship and a blatant violation of human rights.

Tiraspol Times also banned in Moldova

Kommersant Moldovy is not the only newspaper that the authorities are barring from the streets of Chisinau. Our own The Tiraspol Times can also not be legally sold in Moldova, with the authorities claiming that it needs a Chisinau registration. This demand, however, contravenes a legal agreement signed by these self-same authorities in 2001.

On 16 May 2001, Pridnestrovie and Moldova signed the "Declaration about the unobstructed circulation of mass media and delivery of the periodicals and telegrams in the territory of Moldova and the Pridnestrovian republic", allowing for the press from each country to freely circulate in the territory of the other with no censorship and no registration requirements. There are no reported violations of this agreement by Pridnestrovie where Moldovan newspapers are freely for sale in Tiraspol and all other major cities. However, Moldova is in frequent breach of the terms of the agreement by denying its Russian-speaking and English-speaking residents access to newspapers edited in Pridnestrovie.

Also called Trandsniester or Transdniestria, Pridnestrovie has a fairly free media climate. No newspapers are currently banned or closed, and there is no government censorship. Foreign press is freely available and there are no restrictions on freedom of speech in local mass media. The PMR government, although critical of some of the news from Moldova, also does not engage in any jamming or other obstruction of radio and TV signals coming from the neighbor on the other side of the Dniester river; since 1990 the border between the two sides.

Several opposition newspapers exist in Pridnestrovie. They include “Novoe Vremya” (The New Time), Rybnitsa-based “Dobryi Deni”, “Celovek i ego prava” (Man and His Rights), “Novaya Gazeta” from Bender, “Profsoiuznyie Vesti” and “Glas Naroda.” Moreover, the newspaper “Dnestrovskaya Pravda”, while not an opposition newspaper, also publishes editorials highly critical of the government. Its editor, Nadesha Bondarenko, stood as an opposition candidate in the country's 10 December 2006, presidential election and finished second in a field of four candidates.

See also:
» Pridnestrovie's newspapers banned in Moldova [1]
» Human rights activist jailed in Moldova; radio station silenced [2]