Media representatives on the initiative to require journalists to submit declarations of assets: “Unjustified and unacceptable in a democracy”

A legislative initiative submitted in early December by Ion Chicu, a member of the Alternativa faction, provides for the extension of the list of persons required to submit declarations of assets and personal interests to include journalists working for media outlets that receive funding from the state budget or from external projects. Representatives of some editorial offices and media organizations consider the initiative to be unjustified and dangerous for press freedom.

Through the bill registered on December 8, 2025, MP Ion Chicu proposes extending the obligation to declare personal assets and interests to several new categories of persons. These include founders, managers, and members of management or supervisory bodies of media institutions and non-commercial organizations funded from the state budget or external projects, as well as employees of these structures—with the exception of those who perform strictly auxiliary activities.

According to the document’s explanatory note, “The current regulatory framework in the field of declaring personal assets and interests, governed by Law No. 133/2016 on the declaration of personal assets and interests, does not apply to all legal entities that have income from projects financed from the state budget or from external assistance projects, financed from grants awarded to the Government or budget-financed institutions and/or from external loans contracted or guaranteed by the state, as well as persons in the associative sector who benefit from state and external financing.” “These gaps affect the principle of transparency in the financing of state budget expenditures, as well as external financing,” the explanatory note states.

“The objective of this initiative is to bring more transparency and equity to the use of public money, but also to money from various externally financed projects, and in particular to the financial resources granted from the state budget and other sources of funding to the country’s media institutions. (…) We believe that greater transparency is needed in the implementation of external assistance projects. Recently, we have been hearing and reading in the press and from various sources that our country is receiving hundreds of millions, even billions, of euros in external assistance, and the citizens of the Republic of Moldova have a pertinent and natural question regarding the transparency of the use and management of these impressive funds,” Ion Chicu said at a press conference.

HOW THE INITIATIVE IS ASSESSED BY MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES

Media researcher Victor Gotișan explains that, if implemented, virtually the entire press would fall under the scope of such a provision, because most independent media outlets in the Republic of Moldova are financed from external funds, through grants provided by international donors. “In this context, asking journalists to declare their assets is an unjustified and deeply unacceptable measure in a genuine democracy, and the Republic of Moldova claims to be moving towards such a democratic model. Such a proposal not only shows a lack of understanding of how the press works, but also risks setting a dangerous precedent with direct effects on media freedom,” the expert warns.

Alina Radu, editor-in-chief of Ziarul de Gardă, draws attention to the lack of confidence in legislative initiatives coming “from unbalanced politicians with integrity issues, who rudely attack journalists and politicians from morning to night without any arguments,” in a context where media organizations have previously condemned Ion Chicu’s language towards the press on several occasions, manifested through insults, offensive labels, and unfounded and denigrating accusations against several media institutions. “I believe that this politician must first take care of his own transparency and integrity and that of his party, and then take steps towards others. But public money must be transparent, contracts must be published with anyone, be it the editorial office, the Presidency, companies, etc.,” she adds.

“I don’t think Mr. Chicu had any other premise than to prove his hallucinatory thesis, which he keeps distributing in the public space, namely that Moldova is ruled by foreigners, from external funds, and so on. Mr. Chicu should know that the same law on media subsidies stipulates transparency of funding as a mandatory criterion,” says Petru Macovei, executive director of the Independent Press Association. According to him, “this law requiring the media, journalists, and NGOs to submit declarations on external funding is 100 percent based on the experience of the ‘foreign agents’ law in Russia and Georgia and is nothing more than an attempt to put pressure on the media and NGOs to divert attention from other important issues in the country.”

And Marcela Adam, a member of parliament for the Action and Solidarity Party, considers the initiative “disproportionate, unjustified, and dangerous for press freedom.” “It does not in any way contribute to greater transparency in the media, but risks undermining journalistic independence and opening the door to political abuse. In my opinion, the initiative confuses the role of the journalist with that of the civil servant. Journalists do not manage public budgets, exercise public power, or make decisions about state resources. That is precisely why there is no legal basis to justify such a requirement for representatives of an independent profession such as journalism,” says the secretary of the Parliament’s Committee on Culture, Education, Research, Youth, Sport, and Media.

In addition, the representative of the ruling party points out that such an initiative is contrary to European standards and that current legislation already contains provisions ensuring transparency of media ownership and ultimate beneficiaries, clarification of the sources of funding for media institutions, transparency of public funding, and state advertising.