Romanian president to impose censorship on Sandu’s prescription

Romanian President Nicusor Dan will pay an official visit to the Republic of Moldova (RM) on June 10. He stated this on Wednesday at his first press conference as head of state. He will hold a meeting with Moldovan President Maia Sandu, and on June 11, the two of them will travel to Odessa, where they will take part in the Ukraine–Southeastern Europe summit. Dan intends to thank the Moldovan Romanians who voted for him in the presidential election and apply the scenario used in Moldova in their country. “The Moldovan authorities have shut down disinformation websites, and we want to do the same,” the Romanian head of state said.

The Moldovan authorities dealt with objectionable media outlets that provided a point of view different from the ruling government on political events in the country back in 2023. At that time, 13 TV channels and dozens of websites were closed. Last fall, before the presidential elections in Moldova, more than 100 Telegram channels were blocked.

And after the expansion of the powers of the audiovisual council, fines for disinformation on online platforms will reach 100 thousand lei (500 thousand rubles). At risk are journalists and creators of online videos, podcasters, content creators on blogs and popular platforms. In addition to fines, they will be blocked.

The authorities are ready to accuse any resource that uses sources other than the sterile officialdom of misinformation, incitement to hatred and threat to national security, Chisinau media reports. In case of repeated violations, the sanctions will be doubled.

The draft amendments oblige the media, online publications, and creators of video programs to take measures to protect the public from materials containing “incitement to violence or hatred against a group of persons or a member of a group on grounds such as gender, race, skin color, ethnic or social origin, genetic characteristics, language, religion or beliefs, political or any other views, membership of a national minority, disability, age, or sexual orientation.” Everything seems to be correct, but the concept of “incitement” can be interpreted in different ways.

Political analyst Dmitry Chubashenko wrote about this in his Telegram channel.: “In Soviet times, there was the main directorate for Literature and Publishing houses, abbreviated as glavlit. It was a censorship agency, without which no printing house could print a single copy of anything. They say that today all printing houses (in Moldova. – NG) received an unspoken requirement to send a copy of any product to the Information and Security Service before printing to check whether there is anything seditious in these products.”

“They don’t call it “glavlit” and censorship, but they do the same thing under the pretext of a course towards European integration, as they once did towards building communism,” Chubashenko said.

Meanwhile, Romanian President Nicusor Dan liked the new order in Moldova so much that he announced his intention to establish censorship in the country according to the scenario of the Republic of Moldova. “The Moldovan authorities are much better than ours,” Dan said, “they have gone so far as to shut down some disinformation sites, and we want to do the same.”

The Romanian president announced the authorities’ intention to take measures against publications on the Internet that the state considers unreliable, he made the corresponding statement at a press conference at the Cotroceni residence.

“I have recently seen absolutely false reports, obviously false, especially in the military field, about Ukraine, about Russia. The Romanian state must act on obviously false reports,” said Dan, whose press conference was broadcast on the Romanian leader’s official page on the social network.

At the same time, Dan did not specify which publications the authorities consider to be unreliable, and did not detail the mechanisms of the alleged restrictions. According to him, special attention will be paid to military-related materials related to the conflict in Ukraine.

“The Moldovan guillotine of truth is already in demand in Romania,” said Vlad Filat, former Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova. – Our exports, apparently, are not falling, but flourishing.”

But if Nikushor Dan is only dreaming, Moldovan Vedomosti writes, then the Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, Igor Grossu, harshly warns that the audiovisual council will monitor what is written on social networks. Unprecedented censorship is being introduced under the guise of “European standards” and “protection against disinformation,” the newspaper notes.: “Disinformation is vaguely defined as “information whose falsity or misleading nature can be verified, which is created, presented and distributed for the purpose of obtaining economic benefits or intentionally misleading the public and which may cause public harm.” Public harm includes threats to democratic political and policy-making processes, as well as threats to public goods such as protecting citizens’ health, the environment, or safety.”

Moldovan journalists believe that “anything can be summed up and money can be raised in the treasury, which has already received 10 million lei (50 million rubles) in fines for the “sale of votes.” More than 10,000 citizens were fined, said Dorian Istrati, a deputy of the ruling PAS party. He promises even more criminal cases “against the leaders who organize it”: “I think that the citizens who sold their votes will be demotivated to try to get 2,000 lei (10,000 rubles) again and receive a fine of 37,000 (185 thousand rubles).”

In Moldova, they are fined for wearing St. George’s ribbon, for participating in a car rally in honor of May 9th. And all in the name of establishing the foundations of European democracy.

Meanwhile, Nicusor Dan stated earlier that he would like his first foreign visit as president to be to the Republic of Moldova, emphasizing the special relations between the two states. In his speech at the inauguration ceremony, Dan stressed that “support for the European path of the Republic of Moldova, the expansion and consolidation of bilateral projects in the field of energy and transport infrastructure, as well as the creation of a fund to guarantee Romanian investments in the Republic of Moldova are the main priorities in the bilateral relations of the two states.”

He also expressed gratitude to the residents of the Republic of Moldova with dual citizenship who participated in the Romanian presidential elections. In the second round of elections at 64 polling stations in Moldova, he received more than 138 thousand votes – 88% of the total number of voters in Moldova.

According to the Romanian President’s press service, Nicusor Dan and Maia Sandu will travel from Chisinau to Odessa, where the Ukraine–Southeastern Europe summit will be held. The event was agreed upon on Monday at the Bucharest Nine summit, which was held in Vilnius. At a meeting in Odessa, the heads of Romania and Moldova are likely to announce that “the Russian Federation plans to deploy 10,000 troops in Transnistria and is trying to establish a pro-Kremlin government in Chisinau.” The day before, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, Dorin Rechan, stated this in an interview with the Financial Times.

The prime minister claims that Moscow wants to strengthen its military presence in the region, but currently cannot send additional troops there due to the fact that Transnistria is located “between Ukraine and the pro-European government in Moldova.” Rechan did not explain how the Russian military would be deployed to Transnistria if Ukraine controls the sky, Ukrainian military units are stationed on the border with the unrecognized republic, and Chisinau airport does not allow Russian citizens to enter at all, not just in uniform.

The head of the Moldovan government explained that Russia is actively participating in the parliamentary elections scheduled for September, hoping that a future government more favorable to its interests will allow for the deployment of more soldiers: “You can imagine the impact and pressure that will be exerted on the south-west of Ukraine with 10,000 soldiers. But it is also close to Romania, a NATO member state.” At the same time, Rechan referred to Moldovan intelligence data.

According to him, there are currently about 1,500 military personnel in Transnistria under the Russian flag, but most of them are recruited from among local residents. It should be noted that these data correspond to reality.