The non-governmental media organizations express their deep concern and condemn the actions of intimidation and aggression against the journalists Viorica Tătaru and Andrei Captarenco, carried out by the members of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces.

The non-governmental media organizations express their deep concern and condemn the actions of intimidation and aggression against the journalists Viorica Tătaru and Andrei Captarenco, carried out by the members of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces. According to Viorică Tătaru, on July 21, 2020, while she was near the town of Molovata Nouă to document an article about war veterans, the journalist became the victim of intimidation and physical aggression from a soldier of the troops stationed at the security posts from the Dniester. More specifically, the peacekeepers were dissatisfied with the fact that journalists, in the exercise of their professional mission, made some video recordings, capturing the surroundings of the river. Therefore, a soldier of the troops hit Viorica Tătaru and stripped her of her mobile phone, deleting multiple files from the device. Later, while the journalist and her colleague boarded the floating BAC to cross the Dniester River, three peacekeepers forcibly stopped the boat in order to arrest them. Refusing to carry out the illegal order of the armed soldiers, the journalists, together with other passengers, were stuck on board for about an hour, until the arrival of the alerted police crew. We warn the legitimate authorities of the rule of law, the Republic of Moldova, about the seriousness of the interference with human rights and freedoms, guaranteed at the national and international level, both through the violation of the right to the bodily integrity of the person, individual freedom and safety, as well as through the interference with special guaranteed rights journalists. We remind you that, by virtue of art. 24 para. (1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, the state ensures every human being's right to life and to physical and mental integrity. At the same time, the supreme law provides in art. 25 that the individual freedom and safety of the person are inviolable, and the search, detention or arrest of a person is allowed only in the cases and with the procedure provided by law. We emphasize that, according to art. 4 para. (1) of the Law on Freedom of Expression, the state guarantees the freedom of expression of the media and no one can prohibit or prevent the media from disseminating information of public interest except in accordance with the law. Moreover, para. (5) of the same article provides that the intentional illegal obstruction of media activity attracts criminal liability. The signatory organizations vehemently condemn the abusive and illegal actions of members of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces, directed against journalists, and signal the inadmissibility of tolerating such serious violations. In connection with the above-mentioned, we request the Delegation of the Republic of Moldova in the Unified Control Commission (CUC) and the Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration of the Government of the Republic of Moldova to, by virtue of their legal attributions: take note of the violations committed by the members of the Forces Joint Peacekeeping; to put forward an approach with a view to convening the CUC meeting; to request the initiation of a procedure to establish the illegality of the actions of the soldiers of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces; to publicly present information on the measures taken after the referral. At the same time, we call on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to monitor the process of establishing the illegality of the peacekeepers' actions and sanctioning the people who acted against the law. Center for Independent Journalism Independent Press Association Center for Journalistic Investigations Association of Independent TV Journalists Committee for Freedom of the Press Association of Environmental and Ecological Tourism Journalists Association of Electronic Press