Natalia Polyakova, the director and founder of the company holding the broadcasting license for the closed television channel ITV (Canal 5), believes that "the Moldovan authorities have classified it as enemy of the citizens." At the press-conference at the INFOTAG agency on Monday, she reminded that the channel was closed with the formulation "on suspicion of connection with a criminal group."

"Just on suspicion. The Council on Television and Radio could not specify any political justification for such a decision," she noted.

Polyakova said that she "has been in this business for many years, and it was always difficult to work. Because the advertising market (the main source of existence - 'I.') in Moldova is a closed community."

"A number of TV channels have a "political umbrella".' The regulator constantly pursued us, fining us for 150 thousand lei recently. These are the funds that we received transparently from the advertising agency, directing them to employees' salaries. We were punished for the lack of our own content. But we grew it, becoming competitors for oligarch-owned television channels. The Council constantly changed the rules of the game and laws for television channels, making unjustified punitive decisions. Attempts to resolve them in court dragged on for months, years. And no one believed that we survived solely on advertising money," Polyakova said.

According to Polyakova, the decision to close "Canal 5" is being contested in court.

Journalist and head of the Association of Journalists and Media Workers Stop Media Ban, Lyudmila Belchenkova, said that "this is already the 13th television channel closed by the current authorities."

"Moldova is losing its image in this regard. No investor will come to a country where human rights, including the right to freedom of expression, are not guaranteed," Belchenkova noted.