Irina Gavril
MPA 2nd year – Community Development

Hyde Park is a non-governmental organization registered at the Ministry of Justice of Moldova on the 13th of June, 2003. It was founded on the 11th of May, 2003. 88 listeners and sympathizers of Hyde Park popular radio program have participated at the establishment meeting, and they have voted unanimously for the foundation of the NGO. The radio program has been suspended shortly after the NGO was founded, due to warnings from the Coordinating Council of Audiovisual to close down the radio station because of this program.

The name of the radio program originated from Hyde Park in London, the capital of Great Britain. This is a park to which everyone has access, and which contains the Speaker’s Corner, a place where public speaking is allowed, as long as it is considered lawful. Thus, the intention of the radio program and of the NGO formed subsequently has been to provide a free tribune for everybody.

The main objectives of the NGO are:

– to promote the principles of freedom of speech and access to information,
– to contribute to the development of the civil society and of its institutions and to increase the level of civic culture and education of citizens,
– to contribute to the integration of members of Hyde Park in society, to the promotion and assertion of their value,
– to develop a positive attitude of the public towards freedom of speech, contributing to the democratic exertion of this fundamental right,
– to participate at monitoring elections and referenda,
– to promote European democratic values.

The statute of the organization, adopted on the 8th of March, 2005 specifies that Hyde Park non-governmental organization is a public, non-governmental, non-political, non-profit organization which is based on the free participation of its members to the activity of the organization with the purpose of achieving its statutory objectives. It is a legal entity with the headquarters in Chisinau and can found branch offices in the Republic of Moldova and abroad.

Hyde Park seeks to achieve its objectives by:

– organizing seminars, round tables, discussions,
– elaborating common or individual projects and programs with other NGOs, state institutions, local authorities from within the country or from abroad,
– editing books, journals, WebPages and other materials,
– other economic activities allowed by law,
– through production of radio and TV programs, founding its own mass-media institutions,
– authorizing independent observers to elections.

The NGO has been formed because the Hyde Park radio program has been closed down, and its supporters did not want this initiative to be so easily eradicated. The values the organization stands for (human rights, civic implication, freedom of speech etc) are promoted by a range of other organizations, but with which Hyde Park did not want to enter into partnerships (and was criticized for this fact). Thus, there are 37 NGOs protecting human rights, 42 organizations promoting education, 29 NGOs dealing with development of civil society listed in the NGO register published in the Civic Monitor but none of these are so actively involved in promoting their objectives as Hyde Park.

Structure and members of Hyde Park

The structure of the NGO resembles that of the majority of NGOs: a General Assembly, a Council, a Commission of Censors, the president and the honorific senate (which is a consultative body).

The present council of Hyde Park consists of young people, being presided by Oleg Brega, a journalist of Romanian origin. The interim vice-president is a teacher who has graduated her second faculty in Cluj-Napoca, at Babes-Bolyai University, Alina Didilica. The whole list can be found here http://www.sergiubrega.com/curajnet/hp/consiliu.html.

The NGO also has an honorific senate, constituted of academics, artists, writers, war veterans, even political prisoners. Among these, we would like to mention Ilie Ilascu (Bacau senator), Mihai Cimpoi (President of the Union of Writers in Moldova), Stefan Uratu (President of the Helsinki Council for Human Rights in Moldova) and Grigore Vieru (writer).

NGO’s activity
The first common initiative, launched on the day Hyde Park was founded, has been a declaration against federalization of the Republic of Moldova, signed by the end of the year by more than 1200 people. The lists of signatures were presented on the 3rd of July, 2003 to the presidency of the Republic of Moldova, OSCE and UN missions in Chisinau, as well as to diplomatic offices of the countries involved in the management of the Nistru conflict.
Since the 22nd of June, 2003 the organization edited a weekly informative bulletin, Hyde Park, appearing on Sundays, and which was distributed for free to members and supporters of the organization, representatives of the press, local and central authorities. It includes information about the activities and plans of the NGO, different opinions about current events, comments and attitudes of ordinary citizens who do not have access to tribunes for expressing their selves. Later the bulletin took the form of Curaj publication, which appears starting August, 2005. 25 issues are located on http://www.curaj.net/?page_id=529, the last one from July 2007.

Starting with the 6th of July, 2003 several meetings have taken place in different locations of the Republic of Moldova: Slobozia-Dusca, Tatarasti, Straseni, Dobrusa, Hancesti, Pepeni, where were discussed the activities of the organization, the radio program, cultural, social and political issues. Similar tours through Moldova have taken place in 2004 as well, financed by the Norwegian Embassy in Bucharest. Subsequently the organization has published a narrative and photo report regarding these discussions on their website.

The NGO hosts an Internet portal – www.curaj.net – meant for free speech, and accessible to all the people who want to share their opinions. With the help of this project, the members of Hyde Park intend to encourage critical thinking and freedom of speech. “All is needed to post an article or comment is courage, inspiration and education!” (Curaj online journal, issue no. 25, July 2007)

Since the day it has been founded, Hyde Park organized petitions, memoranda, meetings and theme conferences. This meant drafting and making public texts representing the organization’s attitude for impelling civic participation to decision making and facilitating the dialogue between the authorities and citizens. Thus, between 1 – 7 September 2003 Hyde Park initiated a protest campaign, collecting signatures for bringing the monument of writer Liviu Rebreanu to the Alley of Classics in Chisinau. They have managed to gather more than one thousand signatures in support of this action. The lists were presented to the authorities and, simultaneously, through press, to the public opinion. In September 2005 Hyde Park had helped with gathering signatures for a protest relating to the scandal of dismissal of writer Paul Goma from “Viata Romaneasca” journal. These are far from all the work Hyde Park has done in this area.
Hyde Park also organizes an Oratorical Marathon in Chisinau and other localities of the Republic of Moldova. This program has been launched in Chisinau in 2005, on Romanian Language Day. On that day, the members of Hyde Park and their sympathizers proposed themselves to offer the citizens from the capital and to visitors a free tribune to express their thoughts on whatever subject. Usually these meetings take place in the Alley of Classics. The Oratorical Marathon is supplemented with weekly public debates in the same place in Chisinau, and occasionally in Bucharest and Iasi Sundays at noon.

Despite the fact that there are no attorneys in Hyde Park, the NGO initiated tens of lawsuits against several state institutions that have violated their rights. Being helped by experts from legal assistance organizations, in many cases they have won the lawsuits in Moldovan courts, thus creating useful legal precedents. Nevertheless, they still sent several applications to the European Court of Human Rights. Usually, these concerned refusals of the City Hall to give authorization for peaceful demonstrations and protests, or suppression of such authorized demonstrations, their leaders eventually being unlawfully imprisoned. Even at the present moment their leaders are both in prison.
That leads to the most important part of the NGO’s activity: protests. During its five years of existence, Hyde Park has organized protests at numerous institutions, in the Republic of Moldova and beyond its borders (even in Poland), making reclamations of all kinds: starting with staking out the Coordinating Council of Audiovisual for closing down the Hyde Park radio program and going as far as to the problems of students studying in Romania and requests for retraction of the Russian army from the territory of the Republic of Moldova. The truth to be told, many of their protests were based on a unionist movement with Romania, but this always lead to situations in which they had to defend the freedom of speech, even if they were put behind bars. The leaders of the organization have been detained by the police on numerous occasions, usually this representing an abuse of power from the part of the authorities. All the information regarding their protests can be found here http://www.curaj.net/?s=protest and here www.curajnet.blogspot.com. At the beginning of May 2008 both leaders of Hyde Park had been detained by the police for a public protest, on the basis of offence to the national official press. (there were only two people at the protest, Oleg and Ghenadie Brega – Oleg was protesting and Ghenadie was filming) The court has decided to put Oleg Brega in prison for 3 days for administrative offence, and gave Ghenadie Brega a fine for filming the administrative offence. Later on, when Ghenadie had been trying to reach Oleg in prison but was unable to do so because the authorities did not cooperate, he had also been imprisoned for his attempts to protest against the abuse and illegalities of Moldovan police in front of the Government’s building.

In May 2008, the 12 remaining members of Hyde Park requested political asylum in Czech Republic at the Czech Embassy in Chisinau, but were forwarded to the Czech Ministry of Home Affairs.

Analysis and overview of Hyde Park activity in Moldova’s current socio-political context

This section presents a personal opinion regarding the activity and impact of Hyde Park activity in the Republic of Moldova and Romania and a brief analysis of the above-mentioned activity. In my opinion protests are the easiest and cheapest way to increase the social capital. They do not require money or prolonged preparations from the public. As the topics of the protests are so varied, this is an excellent opportunity to attract and bring together as many people as possible. Many of these people are becoming members of the association (NGO). Lately the authorities have come to know Hyde Park very well, and even the smallest attempt of a protest or picket is rapidly intercepted by the authorities, the latter often making abuse of their power and stopping the demonstrations. Almost always the police are using intimidation during such demonstrations.

In the pseudo-democratic context of the Republic of Moldova, where the press is subjugated by the communist regime, Hyde Park succeeded to stir things up and provoke others to make public demonstrations. Examples of this kind are the march of mass-media workers on the World Press Freedom Day, the Gay and Lesbian Parade (even if it had been stopped by Christian and veteran demonstrators), and the Christmas Tree demonstrations Christmas Eve (these following a series of conflicts between the central communist government and the pro-democratic mayor of Chisinau), to name just a few more important events. As it seems, the 5-year efforts of Hyde Park are starting to be seen only now. Of course, we would not say that this is all due to the merit of Hyde Park, because there are other numerous factors contributing to this phenomenon of reinvigoration of civic participation, but one thing is certain – Hyde Park surely created precedents.

Of course, the NGO had also its enemies and competitors, one of them being the Unionist Movement of the Republic of Moldova, which denigrated the work and dedication of its leaders, Oleg and Ghenadie Brega. This had startled public opinion, and contributed even more to the involvement and interest of the public in this matter.

Hyde Park relies very much on mass-media during its activity, because media is the one who helps them promote their activities to the public. Oleg and Ghenadie Brega, the leaders of the NGO, are journalists themselves. The saddest part is that almost all the media is controlled by the communist authorities, and the majority of journalists must submit their work for approval first. The radio program moderated by Oleg Brega on the municipal radio station Antena C has been canceled, and later even the whole radio station has been closed down.

As a conclusion, we may say that Hyde Park is an organization inspiring awe and courage to the public, trying to free their minds. Its leaders are its greatest assets, because they possess the necessary intellectual qualities and perseverance in order to keep the NGO going. They have demonstrated that even with little money and scarce support one can withstand the pressure of the authoritarian antidemocratic governance. If it wasn’t for them, the NGO would have long ceased to exist.

A great deed of the organization was to attract the youth. If we follow their protests, we can observe that these bring together many young people (not even mentioning that the leaders of Hyde Park are young as well). Teaching the young about civic participation and attracting them into it is the most important investment into this country’s future.