MOLDOVA FELL 10 POSITIONS IN PRESS FREEDOM RATING

The Moldovan mass media are various, but very polarized, just as the entire country is, for which chronic instability and excessive influence of oligarchs is characteristic. Such a conclusion was made in the 2019 Press Freedom Rating, published by the international human right organization “Reporters without Borders” on Thursday.

Organization’s experts say that the editorial policy of leading media is closely connected with political and business interests of their owners – the problem which was particularly seen during the recent parliamentary election campaign.

“The journalist independence and the quality, as well as the concentration of media ownership are the main problems. As the mass media are fighting against one another in circumstances, aggravated by the society polarization, the lack of regulation agency independence keep raising concerns”, the research says.

Moldova ranked the 91st place of 180 world countries in the rating with the press freedom index of 31.21, falling 10 positions over a year. The neighboring Romania is on the 47th place, Ukraine – 102nd, Russia – 149th.

The rating is topped by Norway for already the third consecutive year. Then other Scandinavian countries come – Finland and Sweden. The list is closed by Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan.