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In their attempt to protect the "Moldovan people", the Chishinau rulers have taken up measures reminding about the Soviet era and Orwell's famous visionary novel "1984".

The Moldovan Deputies ended their parliamentary term by adding some norms to the law on editorial activity in the Moldovan Republic, a normative document fetching some points against the freedom of the mind and imposing censorship on editors, which doesn't abide by the norms settled by the Council of Europe and the United Nations.

According to this law meant for a "Ministry of Truth", an operative group of vigilant readers, employed by a special department of the Information and Security Service, is to keep an eye on the manuscripts in publishing houses in order to detect and do away with the "Romanian virus". Representatives of the Association of Christian Journalists and Editors in Bucharest have mentioned their intention to address European authorities against such severe disobedience to the freedom of speech.

The Moldova government has provided the Parliament there with a law draft defiant of European norms as well, aimed at "preventing and countering crimes committed by IT systems". So all the Internet users who post "national" will risk reaching the Thought Police.

According to the document you can read in its Romanian version on www.ziua.ro., the most controversial norm in Law 939 concerns the editorial activity and it goes as follows: "It is banned to edit literature that denies and defames the Moldovan state and people."

Another point concerns the control of school textbooks, mainly the history, language and literature ones. It actually means state monopoly to prevent any attempt to recount the truth about the nation's history.

Information against people is welcome

The law allegedly meant to fight IT system crimes includes points as absurd. Just like in the old Communist times, the Information and Security Service will have to learn everything about the electronic means of communication and information. The authorities have claimed that the reason for such a document is the growing number of IT crimes. Therefore the government's law draft demands the service providers to collect and register service users, to provide the Information and the Security Service, as well as the Interior Ministry, with data on informational trafficking, illegal access to information, breaks of rules concerning information and so on. It is to be noticed that service providers are also supposed to give the authorities information about users, about the services they get, the means of payment for the respective service and any other information that may lead to the identification of the user.

The law settles one more obligation for the service providers: in case they are demanded by the institutions entitled it, providers must preserve for a period up to 120 days the documented information or the data on informational trafficking that risks being destroyed or altered. And Article 7 mentions this is to be obeyed "with respect for confidentiality".

Although the MEPs in Chishinau have been debating on these new censorship laws for quite a time now, Bucharest authorities have so far expressed no opposition in terms of protection for Romanians' rights and European norms. The Romanian officials ZIUA has talked to have argued that, did the Moldovan authorities drop the Soviet story with the "Moldovan language and nation" dead, the basic treaty with Romania could be signed very soon.

Articol disponibil la adresa http://www.ziua.net/display.php?id=240208&data=2008-07-14