Dear friends and loyal readers of this blog.
There is no finer time than this holiday season to express my sincerest appreciation of your friendship and support, and to wish you the warmest Holiday Greetings now and throughout the coming New Year. Thank you visiting and making this blog interesting via your contributions.
Season Greetings and Best Wishes for a Wonderful and Happy New Year! 
Just as I was wondering whether to write or not about my own frustration and disappointment with Moldovan media and journalists’ professionalism, I visited Sandu Culiuc’s blog where he addresses a similar issue. His story is that a well-respected media agency, Infotag , used some information from his blog to make a news article, distoring his name, position and the key message of his blog post. Furthermore, that article was distorted even more by a local news portal Moldova Azi
My story is not so personal, but just as outrageous. Since my return to Moldova, I’ve been professionally involved in regional development policy making, so I believe I’ve had time to develop a pretty good understanding of the situation in Moldova. According to my own assessment and given the current political, economical and social circumstances, the progress is significant. In this sense, I was pretty surprised when I came around this article in Logos Press, which gives a completely erroneous description of what’s going on in regional development in Moldova. Based on this example, I question the professional quality of the journalist who published this article, and consequently, the newspaper as a whole. If everything else in this newspaper is as true as the facts in this article, then I guess I won’t be reading it seriously any longer.
Lucia, could you tell what exactly you think is wrong in that article. Give your opinion, give some facts. I'm not a specialist in economics, in regional development polocoes. So, how about an analysis of the facts and opinions provided in the article you mention so that we could compare?
Sorry, polocos = policies
Alexei, I should have anticipated such a reply, so here is my explanation and examples:
My frustration with the article is double in nature: 1) the attitude is speculative and disrespectful without any clear evidence and 2) most facts are misinterpreted and some are actually wrong.
1) First, the overall attitude in which this article was written is demeaning to the public image and professionalism of the institution being criticized: the Ministry of Local Public Administration. I believe that good journalism should be as objective as possible, particularly when there is no evidence to justify a different attitude. The article is written in the “conspiracy theory” attitude, suggesting that the Ministry is planning a big evil conspiracy against everybody in Moldova, particularly local government and their autonomy (which the Ministry is actually meant to strengthen and protect).
Secondly, the author seems to have a problem with the very idea that a central governmental agency is developing and implementing public policies, thus exercising power. Why is the mere job of the Government perceived as evil? I myself think that the work of governmental institutions (not only in Moldova) can and should be improved, but the raison d’etre of governmental agencies is to develop and implement policies.
2) The concept of regional development (as it is promoted in EU) is to encourage large enough regions to create regional capacities for identifying, planning and accessing public funding for development projects. Currently, such regional capacities in Moldova are extremely limited, so somebody has to encourage creation of such capacities through both technical and financial support. Since the central government receives the bulk of domestic tax revenues and donor assistance, and bares the largest responsibility for the overall country’s development, logically, that somebody has to be a central government agency. The central government in Moldova – as everywhere else in the world – is and should be developing a coherent regional development policy, and make sufficient funding available for development of regions. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a national agency administering national funds designed for a specific purpose. If there are concerns about accountability and transparency, there are multiple ways to make that national agency accountable for the way it manages these funds.
Regarding facts: 1) in the last sentence the journalist claims that Moldova would lose EU Cross-border cooperation funds in the North. The opposite is true: from 2007 the entire territory of Moldova, not only the northern part, will become eligible for funding under the European Neighborhood Policy; 2) the article claims that the draft law stipulates financial participation of local governments in financing projects, which is not true: the rayon councils (a provision which was actually included at rayon presidents' insistance, after prior consultation) will contribute a small percentage (0.15%) of their budget only to the operation of regional development agencies (regional executive institutions) (but even it were true, that still should not be perceived as a weakness); 3) the author does not seem to understand that the Ministry is part of, and is subordinated to the central government, while the national budget is not an institution; 4) The article says that the draft law ignores the subsidiarity and public-partnership principles – this is wrong, since these are the two major principles of this policy.
well an interesting question "what's wrong with the moldovan media?"
I would like just to comment and to say that just criticizing on the blog is not enough. Maybe it would be better if you, Lucia will send Your comments to that article to the newspaper or to other newspapers.
Regarding the blogs as a source of information, i would just add that there should be at least two sources of information. The infos on any blog should not be taken as the truth. On the other hand, legally the activity of the blogs is not regulated so anyone can use the information posted on them without any obligation to indicate the source.
Serge,
Thank you for your comment. I think that the need to quote any source of information should first come from one's intellectual integrity. Making a law about quoting blogs will not solve the problems. Plagiarism is widely spread in Moldovan media and academia; the worst thing is that people don't even realize that there is something wrong with using someone else's opinions as their own.
The President of Moldova announced that starting next year the Moldovan government will begin working on a 4-5-year national development plan. I took this as good news as I’m not very happy with the current national document that everyone refers to as Moldova’s major development plans: the Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy. This document is narrow in scope and, as the title suggests, its aim is far from setting national development objectives, priorities and guidelines. As a result, Moldova has had no national development plan, which means that development throughout the country has remained largely unplanned, unaccounted for, and thus stagnant. And this is a big problem, which is finally starting to draw some attention.
The regional development policy, slowly but surely taking shape within the Ministry for Local Public Administration, is another approach to the same problem. Addressing regional underdevelopment through targeted public investment programs and support to regional and local capacities is a practice that has worked successfully in many countries, including EU, US, Japan. However, I noticed a high level of resistance to regional development in Moldova. Skepticism and distrust are the attitudes that people most commonly display regarding the Moldovan regional development policy in making. In my view, this resistance is based on lack of information and misunderstanding of the concept itself, as well as on the general distrust towards any governmental policies. I see it as a big challenge for the Moldovan government to try to regain people’s support, and persuade the public opinion about the positive outcomes of its development policies.
I try to make time and patience for the daily news program on TV Moldova 1, the only channel operated by the national public broadcaster TeleRadio-Moldova . Time because there are many other things I would rather do after a long workday, and patience because it is so different from CNN – my favorite news channel. However, TV Moldova 1 is the only source of current information about public policies, debates, activities and events in Moldova for a great segment of Moldovans. Sometimes, I find out interesting facts as well. For example, yesterday the municipal authorities conducted a simulation of earthquake-related drill and evacuation in one of the most crowded places in Chisinau City, the Central Market. It was good to learn that local authorities still conduct such activities, as they are extremely important, particularly given the increasing vulnerability of Chisinau City to natural disasters such as an earthquake. In reply to "Do you feel prepared in case of an earthquake?" one vendor gave a confident affirmative answer.
But is Chisinau really ready for an earhquake? Chisinau is an earthquake-prone area. The last strong earthquake (7 degrees Richter) took place in 1977, and a couple of weaker earthquakes occured in Chisinau since then. What I’m worried most of all is the physical condition of the housing stock in Chisinau. Very poor maintenance and continuous unauthorized interventions in the engineering networks and buildings structure of apartment blocks are making urban dwelling extremely vulnerable to a potential earthquake. The fact that people are eagerly tearing down apartment walls, and municipal authorities are doing nothing to prohibit such practices indicates that the level of awareness of Chisinau residents regarding the potential damage they might be gradually inflicting on their livelihoods is insufficient. Although the evacuation drill in Central Market is a good thing, there is much more that Chisinau authorities should do to reduce the vulnerability and prepare residents for a potential disaster. Otherwise, it is pretty obvious that the damage brought about by a potential earthquake in Chisinau is likely to be enormous, including high costs in terms of human life and livelihood.
Comments:
Dear Lucia,
happy holidays to you. A prosperous year and greater professional achievements in 2007. You've already conquered high hills, it's time to shoot for the mountains' peaks - and I am sure you will succeed. I admire you, your ambition and wish you to keep going and never stop.
Lilia
Wishing you and the readers of this blog a wonderful 2007.
Dear Lucia,
My best wishes for you and for your country for the new year...