In a statement released by the Russian Foreign Ministry, Chisinau’s decision to suspend the broadcasting licenses of six TV stations, which the Moscow foreign ministry describes as “Russian-language channels,” is condemned as “an act of political censorship.”

The Russian Federation is asking international organisations to assess the actions of the Moldovan authorities, the Russian Foreign Ministry added.

The statement also stressed that the Moldovan authorities are allegedly using “totalitarian censorship methods” to purge the national media of “alternative views”.

The Moscow foreign ministry expresses concern that Chisinau is thus “deliberately depriving millions of Russian-speaking residents of the country’s last sources of news content in their language. Hundreds of journalists will suddenly lose their jobs because of the will of politicians playing the role of censors.”

Moscow calls the CSE’s decision “a cynical violation of the rights of national minorities”.

We note that according to the decision of the Commission for Exceptional Situations (CSE) of 16 December, the six TV stations Orhei TV, TV6, NTV Moldova, Accent TV, RTR Moldova and First in Moldova will be deprived of their broadcasting licenses during the state of emergency, “in order to protect the national information space and prevent the risk of disinformation by spreading false information or attempts to manipulate public opinion, based on the list of natural and legal persons subject to international sanctions, (…) ) and the available information on their control over certain media service providers, as well as the multiple findings in the monitoring reports of the Audiovisual Council on violations of the Audiovisual Media Services Code of the Republic of Moldova, including the application of sanctions for lack of correct information in the coverage of national events and the war in Ukraine”.