By CHISINAU. Dec 23 (Interfax) – The Moldovan parliament on Friday endorsed a concept for strategic communication and measures to counter disinformation, information manipulation, and foreign interference for 2024-2028.
The document provides for “a conceptual vision of how propaganda and disinformation should be opposed” and “determines national interests, threats, risks, vulnerabilities, and lines of action to ensure national security and stability,” Andrian Cheptonar, member of the ruling Party of Action and Solidarity, said in commenting on the document.
The parliament also approved the staffing structure of the newly-established Strategic Communications and Anti-Disinformation Center. The center’s maximum staff number will be 20 employees. The parliament had previously appointed former Interior Minister Ana Revenco as its director. The center’s budget for 2024 has been approved in the amount of 20 million lei ($1.2 million).
The concept was supported by 56 PAS lawmakers, an Interfax correspondent reported from the parliament.
Members of the opposition Bloc of Communists and Socialists (BCS) faction had left the parliamentary hall before the voting and boycotted the session in protest against the concept and the center’s establishment. The BCS accused the Moldovan leadership of imposing censorship and “forcing European integration as state ideology.”
President Maia Sandu proposed setting up the center in May 2023. “The center will perform two main functions: circulate truthful information among the broad public and maintain a permanent dialogue with the citizens, as well as cooperate with all government institutions to promote national interests and enhance the public’s immunity to disinformation. In addition, it will identify, assess, and counter disinformation and eliminate national security risks involving hybrid threats,” Sandu said.
