Center for Investigative Journalism has presented a lawsuit against the Central Election Commission because in the election campaign, the institution has limited journalists' access to information of public interest, such as subscription lists, and financial reports of candidates registered for presidential elections. The first trial will take place on January 24,  2017 at  Centru District Court. The case will be examined by Ion Turcan, former chairman of the court.

The Center for Investigative Journalism submitted in early October a request to the Commission and demanded access to the subscription lists submitted by initiative groups for registration of candidates in presidential elections in Moldova. "Interest in them is determined by debates in society regarding a fair election campaign. We believe that any refusal would not be motivated by personal data. We take responsibility not to share personal data contained in the documents requested", reads the first request. In addition to this, journalists of the Center have sent another request that confirmed again that it assumes responsibility not to disclose personal data and not to photograph documents.

In response, CEC representatives have invoked personal data protection and addressed the letter to National Center for Personal Data Protection.

Another request sent to CEC was related to access to financial reports of all candidates in presidential elections, indicating the jobs of donors. In response, representatives of the Press Service of the Commission said that these data cannot be presented in any way because the rules on personal data protection tightened in order to prevent intimidation of donors in electoral campaign.

Though these data used to be public, now, information about the job, city of residence and year of birth of electoral donors was lined. Despite these impediments, the Center for Investigative Journalism found several curious cases in the lists of electoral donors. Some state officials have made larger donations than their revenues, other donors are beneficiaries of public tenders. Sponsors of this electoral campaign are priests, prosperous businessmen and people with criminal records.

CIJM is represented in this case by lawyers from the organization "Lawyers for Human Rights".