Moldpres is Moldova’s flagship news agency, its work consisting of dissemination of news content and the publication of Monitorul Oficial, the country’s official gazette that publishes all legal documents issued by the Moldovan authorities.
Media assets
News agency: Moldpres
State Media Matrix Typology: State-Controlled (SC)
Ownership and governance
Moldpres’ predecessor was the news agency ATEM, which was dissolved in 1990 by the former Soviet Union (Moldova was a Soviet Republic until early 1990s). In 1994, Moldpres became a state-owned agency of the then newly created Moldovan Republic. In 2018, through a government decree, the agency was reorganized into a public institution with the State Chancellor Office, the government’s servicing bureau, as founder. It has since operated as the Information State Agency Moldpres.
Source of funding and budget
In 2020, Moldpres operated with a budget of MDL 19.7m (US$ 1.1m), according to the latest annual report from the company. Roughly 99% of that was accounted for by revenues from the sale of the Monitorul Oficial, the official gazette of the Moldovan government where all the main state announcements are published. All state institutions are obliged to buy the gazette or purchase a subscription to the gazette. Moldpres’ bank accounts are held in the Finance Ministry treasury account.
In 2022, Moldpres had a total budget of MDL 17.1m (US$ 875,000), most of it coming from sales of Monitorul Oficial, according to a government document.
Editorial independence
The editorial agenda of Moldpres is fully under the control of the government, according to local experts and journalists. There are no expectations from Moldpres to do critical reporting or investigations. The agency itself states that its role is to inform about the state policies and the activities of Moldova’s authorities.
There is no domestic statute that establishes the editorial independence of Moldpres. The agency has an ethical code that all employees at Moldpres are supposed to follow, but that hardly qualifies as an independence-guaranteeing statute.
There is no independent assessment or oversight mechanism that would validate the editorial independence of Moldpres.
September 2023