The training program on social rights for journalists was launched

The Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation (FES), in collaboration with the National Trade Union Confederation of Moldova (CNSM) and the Centre for Journalistic Investigations, launched today a training program for journalists on social rights. The program aims to strengthen the capacities of journalists to address social policy issues, labour relations and violations of workers’ rights in the Republic of Moldova.

More than 20 journalists, representatives of different media in the country, were selected to participate in this training program. During 7 training sessions that will take place between June and December 2018, the participants will be guided in the field of social rights by media experts and CNSM specialists. Journalists will have the opportunity to further develop their own journalistic investigations to be awarded.

Oleg Budza, the president of the CNSM, came with a welcome speech at the launch of the program and spoke about the challenges faced by the trade union movement related to the implementation of the reforms related to the Labour Code, the improvement of the situation regarding the safety and health at work, the creation of the safe workplaces, resolving work disputes, making social partnership more effective.

“According to some estimates, only 20% of jobs in the country are certified according to the requirements in the field. In less than 40% of the institutions where controls were carried out, it has been established that they comply with the rules on occupational safety and health. These but also other important issues employees are facing need to be solved by the social partners. An important role in this respect lies with journalists who need to know the complex themes of social rights and to inform society, social actors, the international community about the situations affecting the rights and interests of employees, trade union members,” the trade union leader stressed.

Ana Mihailov, program coordinator at the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation, said that the organization’s goal is to develop democracy, the rule of law and social justice. “Recently, as a result of our analyses, we have established that there are a number of shortcomings in the field of labour relations. In order to overcome them, inform the society and sensitize decision-makers, we organized a series of journalistic investigations in several sectors of the national economy – construction, textile industry, railways, health, education. This program is part of our efforts to provide journalists with the support of further media coverage of employers’ abuses, pressure on employees, or violation of rights,” highlighted the FES coordinator to the Republic of Moldova.

In this context, Cornelia Cozonac, an investigative journalist, director of the Journalism Investigation Centre, said that the subject of social rights is very broad but little approached in the media. “In many instances, which are insufficiently spoken, people end up in a situation where their labour relations rights are violated, they get on the roads, they do not know who to address, they do not know how to defend their rights. Together with the partners of this program, we have been thinking of doing a long-term training course for journalists, precisely to increase their skills in identifying topics in the field of work, documenting them well, finding sources, contacting experts, so we can have more professional media in the field,” said Cornelia Cozonac.

The themes covered by the program will include, inter alia, the national legal framework in the field of work; mechanisms to ensure that employees’ rights and guarantees are respected; investigative journalism on issues of employee rights violation; changes to the Labour Code and their impact; international recommendations in the field of labour relations.

Department of mass media and international relations