Another Romanian Journalist Expelled From Moldova

"«Are you Romanian? Journalist? What do you plan to do in the Republic of Moldova? Stay here». The passport disappears in the officers’ booth, who sounds the alarm. I am immediately surrounded by two men dressed in forest green. In the meantime, the other passengers with whom I arrived little past midnight in Chisinau from Budapest, with a plane of Moldova Airlines, have no trouble going through the checkpoint, but myself and another Romanian journalist are held behind. We’re both Romanians and journalists. We are under close scrutiny by the guards. Investigators show up shortly,” Bota writes.

He added that border police told them they cannot enter the Republic of Moldova because they don’t have hotel reservations or invitations. Although journalists cited arguments regarding the free circulation of citizens, the European Union and official data posted on the Moldovan Foreign Ministry’s website, their passports were confiscated and they were told they would be sent home on the first flight.

Moldovan authorities later told them they would be expelled and took them into the airport’s “sterile room” and told them to “mind what they write”.

The two were removed from the Republic of Moldova under strict border police supervision and received their passports back when they landed in Timisoara, western Romania.
 

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