Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Moldova's Media Revolution: The third day of demonstrations in Chisinau. Highlights

08.Apr.2009 - UPDATE 1. Chisinau: The day three of protest began around 10 AM but without any sign of violence. The demonstration started with an initial number of 1000 people at 11 AM, peaked at about 5000 protesters at 2 PM and decreased down to 3000 at 4 PM. During the day, a series of new events took place: the romanian ambasador in Republic of Moldova was declared "persona non-grata" and must leave the country in 24 hours, president Voronin announces re-introduction of visas for romanian citizens and in response the romanian authorities declare that they will not proceed the same, a series of arrests were started by the communist (something specific and expected for such regimes) among the "victims" being Sergiu Mocanu (one of the liders of the moldovan opposition and ex-adviser of Vladimir Voronin) and Gheorghe Brega - romanian citizen (president of Hyde Park Association); at the same time an oficial told the demonstrators that 125 students were arrested the previous night (communist fear propaganda) and the protesters threatened back giving ultimatum to president Voronin and asking him to leave the power, release of all 200 people put under arrest up to now and organization of new elections.
It seems that the main fact that bothers Voronin is that the Romanian Flag was installed on the Parliament building on the 7th April protests. It looks like he does not remember that Moldova was part of Romania and furthermore there is no big difference between both countries flags.
UPDATE 2
-2 pro-communist meetings were organized in Soroca (2:30 PM) and Balti (4:00 PM) with paticipation of (mostly russian speaking) people aged 40-50. They condemned the yesterday events.
- train transport towards and from Romania was cancelled on technical reason.
- leaders of the 3 oppozition parties signed an agreement of not recognizing legally the 5th of april elections.
UPDATE 3
5:00PM the protesters threaten with taking over the Television building.
6:00PM Unimedia.md and Hotnews.ro reveal that during the protest of wednesday, behind the Government Buiding (Chisinau) there were parked Secret Service cars registered with Transnistrian and Moldavian plate numbers (SEE VIDEO)
7:00PM "Facebook - social networking media" has been blocked by Moldtelecom - the main Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Moldova. Facebook played an important role in online transmission of the news from Moldova.
9:00PM moldavian media accuse the "Voronin's police" of agression against many journalists. Oleg Brega, a cameraman of Jurnal TV station was brutalized and beaten to blood by the police and subsequently left crawling in the street. 2,5 hours earlier four reporters from "Ziarul de Garda" have been threatened and scared by the same "law people". The foto and video cameras were either confiscated or destroyed (Hotnews.ro , Hotnews.md)
Vladimir Voronin shows up on TV for 15 minutes accusing the EU-member Romania of involvement in the Moldavia conflicts. Romanian oficials deny accusations and consider Voronin's declarations as a classical reaction used by communists when they do not manage to solve their own internal problems.
10:00PM protesters left the "Piata Marii Adunari Nationale" after they agreed to meet again tomorrow (Thursday-9.Apr.2009).
There were published the results of the parliamentary elections from 5th April: Communist Party obtained 49.48% of votes which represents 60 seats in parliament, insufficient to name the new president of Republic of Moldova.

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