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Media NGOs ask Taraclia mayor not to intimidate TUK.md journalists

08 July 2021

Non-governmental media organisations condemn the repeated verbal attacks and threats by the mayor of Taraclia against the news portal TUK.md and ask him to stop his attempts to intimidate journalists. Thus, on 17 June 2021, the TUK.md portal organized debates on the topic of transparency of public authorities, to which activists, local and national experts, representatives of authorities, including the mayor Veaceslav Lupov, were invited. The editorial staff states that V. Lupov did not respond to the request to confirm his participation in the debates, nor did he show up at the indicated start time of the filming, but came when the debates were in full swing and the door of the TUK.md office was closed so as not to prevent the filming. In a live broadcast on social media, Mayor Lupov accused the TUK.md newsroom of not allowing him to participate in the debates, while launching a series of labels, insults and defamatory statements against the media institution and its collaborators. Among other things, the journalists were called "shameless liars", "scoundrels", arrogant people who work to discredit the local public administration, etc. At the election meeting on 6 July 2021 of Vadim Fotescu, candidate of the "Shor" party, with the residents of Taraclia, Mayor Veaceslav Lupov again attacked the journalists of the TUK.md portal, calling them "provocateurs", "gang", "criminal group" and threatening to publish materials proving these accusations. The signatory organisations express their solidarity with the editorial staff of TUK.md, disapprove of the disqualifying behaviour of the mayor of Taraclia and ask him to stop any kind of attacks and illegal attempts to intimidate journalists. We remind Mr. Veaceslav Lupov that insults, i.e. words or actions that offend the honour and dignity of a person, are punishable by a misdemeanour, and intimidation of the media or journalists for criticism, as well as intentional hindering of media activity, are criminal acts punishable under Article 180 first of the Criminal Code. Association of Independent Press (API) Association of Electronic Press APEL Committee for Freedom of the Press RISE Moldova Journalistic Investigation Centre Media-Guard Association Association of Environmental Journalists and Environmental Tourism Independent Journalism Centre "Acces-Info" Centre