Moldova: Cameramen now allowed access to the Parliament’s Meeting Room

The Independent Journalism Center, a SEENPM member organization, lauched the campaign  “We want Access into the Parliament!” in 2014. MPs needed 705 Days to decide on allowing Journalists free Access to Plenary Meetings.

The Parliament’s Permanent Bureau approved on Wednesday, April 13, modifications and supplements to some of its decisions regarding access, order, and security in the Parliament and accreditation of media representatives, thus responding to long demands of the civil society and accredited journalists to have free access to the Parliament’s meeting room.

Thus, beginning on April 14, cameramen will be able to take their places in the two balconies specially reserved for the media. “All proposals and recommendations that the civil society and the media formulated after discussions within the joint working group have been accepted,” said Svetlana Ursu, head of the communications and public relations office.

The Independent Journalism Center initiated the “We want access into the Parliament!” campaign in 2014. During the past two years, journalists used different forms of protest to raise MPs’ awareness on restriction of the media access to plenary Parliament meetings: they organized flashmobs, signed petitions, and recently several representatives of the civil society and the media, wearing shirts with the words “Free access for the press,” protested in the Parliament’s meeting room.