Foreign policy, national security and the perspectives of European Union – topics discussed at the new SAJ Discussion Club
This week, the School of Advanced Journalism is holding the second specialized course – Political Journalism. The course aims at providing students with the skills necessary to approach political topics and at initiating them into documentation and coverage of political events.
Since the course involves assimilation of a large amount of information, it was divided into two modules: international/European journalism and domestic politics journalism. To help students understand the topics related to foreign policy, Moldova’s relations with the European Union, and our country’s place in global geopolitics, trainer Sorina Stefarta invited Victor Chirila, the director of the Association for Foreign Policy, to a meeting of the SAJ discussion club.
The expert made a general presentation of the political situation in Moldova, referring especially to the governments that followed one another over the past year and to the impact this phenomenon had on the country’s social and political life. Students wanted to hear who, in Victor Chirila’s opinion, is guilty of the political crisis that Moldova faced in 2015. “All of those who were in the government are responsible for what happened and still happens in our country,” he said. According to him, the situation can be changed only on condition that progressive political forces mobilize themselves and win the electorate’s trust.
Another topic that sparked the students’ curiosity was related to the crisis in Ukraine and its impact on Moldova’s security system. Also, discussion touched upon the perspectives of the European Union and the European integration of Moldova; the Association Agreement; European Neighborhood Policy and cooperation between Brussels and Chisinau. Victor Chirila believes that Moldova coming closer to the EU now depends equally on the current political class, on Moldovan voters, who will have to decide, in case of early elections, the country’s political vector, as well as on the developments inside Europe, which struggles with the economic crisis and, recently, the crisis of refugees.