MEDIA COMPANIES CAN GET ACCESS TO INFORMATION FROM PUBLIC REGISTERS FOR FREE

The Government approved a bill that gives Moldovan media outlets the right to get information from state registers for free.

The Cabinet of Ministers’ General Secretary Andrei Spinu said that the draft law provides to periodicals, news agencies and media service suppliers the right to receive official information, which is not classified, for free, but with a condition of observing the legislation in the field of personal data protection.

“We want that press to have free access to information, in particular from the Real Estate Register in order to avoid creating obstacles to the media in conducting work in citizens’ interest. This is important not only for journalists, but also for ordinary people, because due to this we can find out more about corruption”, he said.

It is proposed to introduce changes to the Law on press, the Law on real estate cadastre, the Law on access to information and the Law on public registration of legal persons and individual entrepreneurs.

Prime Minister Maia Sandu stressed that the Government seeks more transparency and wants that press to be analyzing and studying the work of public institutions.

According to her, now the payment for providing of different official information is within 50-245 lei, thus when it comes about the need to analyze large volumes of data, the costs grow much, while the independent press has no money.