Online television station JurnalTV wins Webstock award

Online Moldovan television station JurnalTV recently won the Webstock 2009 award for best video and audio online station.

The award ceremony was held in Bucharest and included over 600 competitors. JurnalTV was the only Moldovan website to win a prize.

The online TV station made a name for itself during the April protests in Moldova and the repression that followed. JurnalTV was one of the very few media outlets in the country that showed numerous interviews with young men and women who had said they had been tortured by the security forces after April 7 and 8.

During their reporting, JurnalTV cameraman Oleg Brega was beaten, most likely by police officers, and JurnalTV reporter Rodica Mahu was detained without explanation for several hours by unknown people. One of the most striking images provided by JurnalTV at the time showed JurnalTV director Val Butnaru desperately looking for Ms. Mahu in Chisinau, and a protester being beaten and detained by plain-clothes officers in the back of the Government building.