What's Wrong with Moldovan Media?
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.
Comments:
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.