On April 26, 2012 the report of television and radio broadcasting Company “Deutsche Welle” named “Transnistria – Europe's Hotbed of Smuggling” appeared on popular video hosting “YouTube”. Given report states, that “everything, right up to drugs and weapons, is illegally transported through the border between Ukraine and Pridnestrovie”, that “illegal transit is prospering…”. The main conclusion made by the authors drives the attention of spectators to the period, when many European means of mass media presented Pridnestrovie only as a “black hole”. The employee of “Deutsche Welle” concludes: “Untill the region stops to insist on its' independence … the problem of smuggling on Southern borders of Europe will remain unsolved”.
Respectable and quite authoritative television and radio broadcasting Company “Deutsche Welle” demonstrated the example of dishonest journalism and “black PR”. The authors try to use the authority of the EUBAM Mission, which has been working on Moldova-Ukraine and Pridnestrovie-Ukraine segments of the border since December 2005. But the do not give and factual evidence from the EUBAM reports, obviously because of the reason that they do not exist. Year after year the reports of the EUBAM demonstrate revealed facts of smuggling on Moldova-Ukraine border which do not concern Pridnestrovie. The Head of the EUBAM Office repeatedly made corresponding statements which disprove slander regarding much talked-about guessworks on traffic of weapons and drugs. Official statements apropos of this were repeatedly made also by the Authorized Representatives of Ukraine.
Such kind of superficial manipulation with facts and figures, demonstrated by the authors of the report, by all appearances was aimed to convince European audience of the threat which supposedly comes from Pridnestrovie. The unfounded accusations of the authors cast aspersions not only on Pridnestrovie, but also on customs authorities of Ukraine and Moldova and on the EUBAM Mission.
Considering the fact that Pridnestrovie, while facing difficult socio-economical situation, pays considerable attention to transparency of the borders, that Pridnestrovie made unique decisions which define financial transparency, such reports may be considered to be tendentious and one-sided aiming on justification of economical limitations in respect of Pridnestrovie. The authors of the report hush up that economical limitations introduced for Pridnestrovie with the support of EUBAM did not result in solving of the problem but worsened social and financial position of people. The authors also preferred not to mention about the fact that despite the UN recommended not to impose sanctions which can worsen social and financial position of people, Pridnestrovie faces sanction regime since 2006.
It is worth reminding that, in accordance with the Convention on International Right of Refutation, “professional responsibility of reporters and informational agents demands them to convey facts without discrimination and in proper connection, and, eo ipso, to strengthen the respect for human rights and basic freedoms, to promote international mutual understanding and cooperation and assist the preservation of international peace and security.” Information provided by journalists of television and radio broadcasting Company “Deutsche Welle” is unauthentic and garbled, it damages international image of Pridnestrovie and must be corrected by the corresponding refutation.
PMR's MFA will submit corresponding requests to the leadership of EUBAM and television and radio broadcasting Company “Deutsche Welle”.
