Interview: Moldovan activist Natalia Morari

Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, is the location for this euronews interview. This impoverished former Soviet republic wedged between Romania and Ukraine has been in political turmoil since legislative elections last April which opposition parties claimed were rigged. The ruling Communist Party ignored their complaints, but will have to hold fresh elections later this summer after failing to gain the necessary majority in parliament for their preferred candidate for the presidency. International observers are split over whether the election was fair, but thousands of mainly young Moldovans took to the streets in April in the belief that it was rigged with the names of hundreds of thousands of dead people still on the electoral rolls. An initially peaceful demonstration organised by NGO activists to protest about how the election was conducted later turned violent. Hundreds were arrested. Moldovan journalist and civil rights activist Natalia Morari was one of the main organisers of the peaceful protests. Morari, who was previously banned from Russia for her critical reporting on alleged corruption there, has now been charged by the Moldovan authorities with inciting "mass disorder".

Euronews | June 13, 2009

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