International monitoring groups, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, characterized the November 1996 presidential and the March 1998 parliamentary elections as free and fair. The OSCE has suggested improvements in the legislative framework, voter registration, and access to the media during election campaigns. The constitution and laws provide for freedom of speech and the press. The penal code, press law, and the law on audiovisual questions provide excessive restrictions on freedom of expression, and defamation of the state and people is proscribed.
Most political parties publish their own newspapers, which frequently criticize government policies.
Independent media have complained about the inequality of access to information. Freedom of religion is generally respected, though a 1992 law on religion contains restrictions that could inhibit the activities of some religious groups as it prohibits proselytizing. In 1997, a Court of Appeal ruled that the government must recognize the Moldovan Orthodox Metropoly, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox patriarch in Moscow. In 1999 the government continued to refuse to register the Bessarabian Orthodox Church, which has subordinated itself under the Romanian Orthodox patriarch. There are some restrictions on freedom of assembly.