Who is coming to the Forum? Special events: discussions on the decline of regional media, the launch of the “BLACK BOOK 2025,” and the awarding of the best investigative journalism
The Media Forum 2025, which will take place on December 8 and 9 in Chisinau, will also feature two special events: one dedicated to the local press and the other to investigative journalism. As is tradition, a new edition of the “BLACK BOOK of public money waste in the Republic of Moldova” will be launched and the best investigative journalism of the year will be awarded.
The event “National Issues – Local Approach,” hosted by the Berlin-based organization Media in Cooperation and Transition (MiCT), will discuss the causes of the decline of regional/local media and the lack of credible sources of information in the territory capable of reflecting local issues in an objective and balanced manner. The moderator of the event, Victoria Dumbravă, director of the Agora.md portal, will also address possible solutions to this problem, such as the joint mobilization of media professionals, other content creators, public authorities, and development partners to support the consolidation of credible local media, which is very important for communities and for protecting the information space from disinformation. Marian Vogel, MiCT Regional Director for Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus, will participate as an international expert. Marian has extensive experience in data and communication and has implemented data-driven election campaigns at the local and national levels in Germany, Italy, and Austria. He currently coordinates emergency support programs for journalists and media institutions, thus supporting media ecosystems in difficult and high-risk conditions.
The second special event of the Forum will launch the “BLACK BOOK of public money waste in the Republic of Moldova,” now in its seventh annual edition. The BLACK BOOK is a collection of well-documented journalistic investigations into cases of public procurement in violation of legal norms and in situations of conflict of interest, infrastructure projects in which investments were made inefficiently, or fraudulent management of European investments. The same event will feature a discussion on investigative journalism in the “era” of influencers with Romanian journalist Attila Biro, co-founder of the Context.ro portal, moderated by Viorica Zaharia, editor of the Moldovacurată.md portal. Attila Biro has over 20 years of experience in investigating organized crime and corruption, including international projects, alongside other journalists who are members of the Organized Crime and Reporting Project network. He has collaborated on high-profile journalistic investigations, such as The Laundromat in Azerbaijan and The Panama Papers.
This will be followed by the award ceremony for the winners of the national competition “Investigations of the Year 2025,” which has also become a tradition of the Media Forum over the past eight years. The awards will be presented by Raimar Wagner, project director of the Romanian and Moldovan office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Germany. The foundation funds the competition and the publication of the BLACK BOOK to stimulate investigative journalism in Moldova in the fight against corruption, embezzlement of public funds, and other irregularities.
For details about the debates and workshops that will take place during the two days of the Media Forum 2025, read HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Mandatory pre-registration for participation in the Media Forum 2025 takes place on the official website of the event and will be open until November 30, 2025, inclusive. Those interested must complete the form on the website and select the events they wish to attend on the first and second days of the Forum. As a result of the registration, the organizers will select approximately 150 participants, whose list will be published five days before the Forum.
The Media Forum in the Republic of Moldova is organized annually by the Press Council as the national self-regulatory authority for journalism, in partnership with the Independent Press Association (API), the Center for Independent Journalism (IJC), and the Electronic Press Association (APEL).
The 2025 edition of the Forum is supported by the European Union, International Media Support (Denmark), the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (Germany), the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the Soros Foundation Moldova, and DW Akademie (Germany).
