Moldova suspended the work of six TV channels and blocked pro-Russian portals

This Monday, Moldova suspended six television channels associated with the banned pro-Russian Shor party and fugitive oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc, and also blocked another 31 Internet portals, most of which are directly controlled by Russia.

The head of the Information and Security Service of Moldova (ISS), Alexandru Mustiata, signed an order to block the portals of major Russian agencies such as TASS and Interfax, as well as the radio station of the propaganda division of the Sputnik agency and newspapers such as Izvestia and Komsomolskaya. Is it true.

In total, 21 of the 31 blocked portals “are under the direct control of Russia,” Musteata said at a press conference, according to the Moldovan publication Newsmaker.

The Moldovan government’s decision was made on the first of two days of Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s official visit to Moldova at the invitation of his colleague Maia Sandu, who visited Lisbon earlier this month.

The Moldovan government decree states that these are Internet portals that disseminate information “that may give rise to tension or social conflicts” and that “comes from the public authorities of a state involved in a military conflict and recognized as an aggressor state, or from people and entities , which are subject to sanctions from the European Union, USA, Canada, Great Britain and Norway for destabilizing actions towards Moldova.”

Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean wrote on his personal Facebook account that the country “is subjected to hybrid attacks from the Russian Federation every day.”

“These threats have intensified in recent weeks. Russia, through organized criminal groups, wants to influence the local elections on November 5 and undermine the democratic process,” Recan emphasized.

The head of the Moldovan government explained that this Monday, on the recommendation of the ISS, the country’s Emergency Situations Commission also decided to suspend the licenses of six television channels “that promote foreign interests.”

“These TV channels are subordinate to criminal gangs [de Vladimir] Plahotniuc and [de Ilon] Shor, who united to destabilize the country,” Recan emphasized.

“We will not allow this to happen and will always act with readiness and determination in the interests of citizens,” he added.

We are talking about the TV channels Horizon TV, iTV, Prime TV, Public, Channel 2 and Channel 3, whose portals were also blocked today.

Moldovan justice this year sentenced Ilon Shor, exiled to Israel, to 15 years in prison, while Plahotniuc is internationally wanted for corruption and led the Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM), which ruled the country between 2016 and 2019.

Already last week, the ISS ordered the blocking of 22 Internet portals of Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Moldova, including Russian public channels such as NTV, Vesti and RT, Zvezda, Russian Defense Ministry television, the ultranationalist channel Tsargrad and such agencies as like “Russia Today”.

Access to five portals of the official Russian news agency Sputnik was blocked for several months for spreading “false information,” and in mid-September, the director of Sputnik Moldova, Vitaly Denisov, was expelled from the country.

Moldova also closed six Russian television channels in 2022 to protect its citizens from propaganda and disinformation from the Kremlin, which backs Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria.