“Moldova Times” is the first media to unite Moldova and its diaspora worldwide

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twitter2The media NGO “Monday Times” has launched the platform www.MoldovaTimes.com, which covers news about the economic, politic and social situation of Moldova with daily online news about the rule of law, social reforms, political decisions. The aim of the multimedia platform is to raise awareness about respect for rule of law, European reforms and increase the flow of information from the Moldovan experts living abroad, whose voices will represent a great value for the development of current reforms in Moldova.

A dialogue between civil society and authorities will be developed to advance the human rights agenda among public officials. The multimedia platform is an interactive tool to address major concerns about corruption, human rights and will inform the audience to better engage in dialogues with authorities via social media platforms. It will be the first leading media organization in Moldova to monitor public decisions.

For the first year, about 100.000 Moldovans will be better informed from the perspective of human rights and various civic groups from diaspora are engaged to freely express their views to advance European values underestimated by Moldovan Government.

 WHO WE ARE?

Monday Times was registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Moldova in December 2013. It is a nongovernmental media publication aimed to bring positive impact in society by disseminating information in periodic newsletters and websites about social, political and economic situation of Moldova and worldwide.

It promotes freedom of assembly and association, freedom of conscience, respects gender equality, human rights. It is part of Moldova Times Corporation that is formed up by other media publications such as Tuesday Times, Wednesday Times, Thusday Times, Friday Times, Saturday Times and Sunday Times, each having a strategic communication in providing various other media products. http://rson.justice.md/organization/view/8802

In long terms, the Corporation will develop new products for various target groups. Monday Times is focussing on human rights news, international audience. As well, the media publication targets all citizens of Moldova, young people, women, rural population, etc.

WHY DO WE EXIST?

Moldova is rated as a partially free country according to the Freedom House Reports. The situation is similar in what concerns human rights promotion in mass-media. The respect for human rights is determined by the external pressure that is applied on the authorities and not due to internal human rights mainstreaming policies. Respect for rule of law remains a challenge for Republic of Moldova, the promotion of human rights is being a necessity for the development of the young Moldovan democracy.

reformsAccording to the Freedom House report for 2015, the media environment in Moldova offers a wide choice for audiences; however, oligarchs and politicians have control over the majority of media outlets.” Media pluralism and locally produced media have increased in recent years. However, press freedoms are influenced by a sharp political divide. Media outlets are often used to advance business or political interests and media sometimes self-censor out of fear of defamation cases.

There is a little number of journalists able to work in the field of human rights. Thus, human rights and European reforms are not a part of public debates being randomly discussed in the public domain. In order to bring these issues on social and political agenda, there is a need to: empower independent journalists to work in the human rights domain; to create a media platform for providing current relevant information and analysis why European reforms stagnate; to bring new perspectives from Moldovan diaspora living abroad and to promote their opinions as active groups of Moldovan society.

The proposed project aims to contribute to flow of information from diaspora, that represent over 1 million of people living abroad and who are basically excluded from the active role in Moldova society due to poor migration policies. The current platform will offer them the possiblity to freely express their opinions about Moldovan politics and suggest improvements in public policies.

OUR MISSION:

GOAL: To raise awareness in mass-media about human rights and respect for rule of law by promoting a diversity of opinions from Moldova and its diaspora on a multimedia platform about the development of Moldovan reforms.

moldtimesObjective 1: By the end of the project, the media project will empower vulnerable groups of Moldova with better information about their rights and actively engage them via multimedia platform to express its points of view about political decisions, economic changes and social policies.

Objective 2: Within one year, the project will promote best practices and diversity of opinions from Moldovan diaspora living in USA, Canada and other countries about Moldovan reforms in economic, social, health, education and other areas.

Objective 3: To engage civic groups in political, economic and social decisions discussions that affect their daily lives by offering an open space online platform to express their views similar to blogging.

WHAT WE PLAN TO DO?

Monday Times NGOs is interested in the future development of Moldova and plans to contribute to build a online multimedia platform with a flow of information about Moldova current affairs from the perspective of human rights. Diaspora initiatives in USA, Canada and other countries will make sure the voices of Moldova diaspora are represented by interviews, blogging on the website and experts are able to comment on Moldovan policies related to education, health, business, international development, politics, economics, etc.

1.1 A multimedia platform www.MoldovaTimes.com will be administrated to publish during the first 6 months over 1.000 online news that cover human rights and the implementation of reforms in Moldova; Monday Times will write and report daily on www.MoldovaTimes.com both in Romanian and English about major political decisions and current events. The overall website’s responsibility is be under the Editor in Chief, Natalia Ghilascu. She will also coordinate the implementation of a few information campaigns at various public events both in rural and urban communities.

1.2 In 6 months time, over 50 weekly legal advices about how citizens should react in certain situations will published and produced by human rights experts from Chisinau; The rubric “Your Rights” will be managed by Human Rights Information Center and will engage Moldovan public to ask questions and legal advice, such as how to proceed when you are discriminated, or how to rely on public free lawyers.

news1.3 About 3 interviews/articles about Moldova current affairs will be published on a weekly basis where public officials report about the progress/regress of the democratic reforms; In 6 months times, there will be a total of 100 analytical articles published by Monday Times, whose reporters will interview about three Government and public officials about rule of law, reforms, anti-corruption efforts, etc.

2.1. About 3 articles per week will be published from experts and Moldovans living in USA, which is over 100 interviews/articles in total. These will reflect their best practices in various areas and whose viewpoints about Moldovan situation are highly encouraged; The articles and reports will be written by “Monday Times” journalists and assisted by diaspora initiatives in USA and other countries, offering their networks and contacts in various fields. Success stories will be promoted on the rubric “Moldovans abroad”.

2.2 Over 500 members of Moldovan diaspora from each country will express their personal views about Moldovan situation by creating an open account on the multimedia platform. Members of Moldova diapora will encourage Moldovans living abroad to create accounts and be able to freely express their opinions about Moldova. The current activity will be also done by the Editor in Chief who will mobilize the community online.

3.1 On the other side, over 500 civic groups and individuals from human rights, NGO representatives, school leaders and community leaders will freely express their opinions about Moldovan current affairs by creating an open account on the multimedia platform. Human Rights Information Center will raise information campaigns in rural communities and encourage them to actively blog and express opinions.

3.2 Over 160 opinion palls about specific political, economic and social decisions will be collected from Moldovan rural and urban population in the rubric “Question of the Day”; Monday Times will collect answers and will produce video vox populi for the website. Such voxes will be produced on a daily basis. The questions raised will be referring to the current reforms, corruption, political situations, unemployment, etc. For all those who will be participating at the opinion poll information leaflets with the site name will be given to increase its popularity.

3.3 Create a weekly list of questions addressed to public officials, politicians, President and Government members from behalf of civic groups, individuals, community leaders and lead this process as NGO media representative. “Monday Times” will publish the answers from citizens on a daily basis from at least one public official, which means that over 160 public officials will have to respond to at least one question posted in the rubric “Active Dialogue”.

Most of the media products will be completed on a weekly basis, striving for an active participation from both citizens and public officials. An accredited journalist from Moldova will be interviewing American officials/senators and Eastern European Programs in Washington DC, as well as United Nations. Some of the informational assistance will be provided by Radio Liberty, Moldovan Association, Moldovan Embassy all situated in Washington DC.

libertatea-cuvantului-lupaThe website is being developed with the assistance of Moldovan diaspora in USA, who is offering their service for free. The rest of Moldovan current news will be written by local journalists, press conferences and other political events that will be monitored on a daily basis. Since Monday Times has a small team, most of the news will be written die to digital platforms of Privesc.EU, LIVE Talk-shows of TV channels in Chisinau.

The main beneficiaries of the website are both rural and urban population of Moldova who have access to internet. A special focuss will be offered to the young readers who strive to express themselves on online platforms, teachers, students, artists, doctors, other intelectuals. Part of the audience will be the international community who in interested in Moldovan situation, for whome, the major news will be translated in English. We hope to reach over 50.000 unique viewers in 8 months for the duration of the project.

WHO IS OUR TEAM?

Natalia Ghilascu – coordinator of the project from Moldova Today, will assure communication among partners, will write evaluation reports; the second position is of editor/journalist who will write reportage, interviews with Moldovan public officials and Moldovan experts from diaspora; responsible for the rubrique “Moldovans Abroad”.

Renata Lupacescu – independent reporter for social, health, political and economic news, current affairs. Will interview public officials and will be responsible for the rubrique “Public Dialogue” and will write local news.

Olea Rainovani, independent activist, will film and picture protests, political and social events in Chisinau, opinion poll, will film and edit 360 video production for the website. This is a part time job and will be responsible for the rubrique “Voice of the Nation”

Vitalie Popov, member of Human Rights Information Center, will write news about Moldovan events and political decisions with major concern for human rights; will organize interviews with experts and public officials in Moldova; Will coordinate the rubrique “Public Dialogie”.

Olesea Perean – member of Human Rights Information Center, lawyer, will write legal advices for the website, will encourage civic groups from Moldova create their blogs on the website and monitor their ethic participation; Will coordinate the rubrique “Your Rights”

Mihaela Ajder, member of Human Rights NGO, will translate articles and interviews from Romanian to English and English to Romanian so that the international audience have access to Moldovan news.

OUR PARTNERS:

The Moldovan diaspora will take responsibility for gathering news and opinions from the Moldovan experts living throughout USA, whose voices will represent a great value for the development of current reforms in Moldova. As well, the American Associations will promote the website among major events organized in USA, such as National Convention.

Human Rights Information Center, registered in Moldova, will collect and produce news from the perspective of respect for human rights, will produce legal advice pieces about major concern for vulnerable groups; The NGO’s consultants will advice “Moldova Today” NGO which are the major issues of concern with regard to human rights policies, educational and health reforms, etc.

Both partners will mobilize individuals and civic groups to create blog accounts and express their views about Moldovan social, political and economic situation.

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