Oleg Brega

Oleg Brega is a journalist, activist and filmmaker from Chişinău, the Republic of Moldova. He has been the president of the Moldovan public activism group “Hyde Park” since 2003.

Moldova, Europe’s poorest nation, struggles with freedom of expression and access to information and has been identified as a potential powder keg due to its ties with the European Union and it’s heavily saturated media influences from Russia. Oleg Breg graduated from the Music, Theater and Fine Arts Academy, Chişinău and later the Academy for Theater and Film in Bucharest to pursue a career in media before becoming involved in political activism in 2001. A few years later, Brega launched his radio show called “Hyde Park” following a Communist political victory that sparked massive public protests due to it’s suspicious activity surrounding the election. Brega’s radio show opened the airwaves to the public, allowing everyday citizens to have public debates and discussions about the Moldovan state. The radio show was quickly shut down by the Interior Ministry, a catalyst for Brega to then start his activist group under the same name.

Hyde Park’s mission is aimed at promoting free expression, freedom of assembly, access to information, and human rights by organizing protests and demonstrations, though the group has had to go underground at various times to avoid persecution and arrest by the state. In 2004, Brega launched an online broadcast channel, Curaj.tv, in an act of citizen journalism. Brega gets candid about the reality in Moldova, whether it is questioning the police about illegal parking, lavish political lifestyles, or people waiting in long lines to collect holy water from a frayed hose. In 2008, Oleg Brega was assaulted by the Prime Minister’s bodyguards in the hallway of the Moldova National Opera Ballet protesting a meeting held by Prime Minister Zinaida Greceanîi. Later that year Oleg was again arrested for peacefully protesting in front of the National Palace where a celebration was held to mark the 50th anniversary of the foundation of Moldova. After Hyde Park helped organize the Moldovan civil unrest in 2009, Brega was forced to go into hiding. Reemerging later, Brega now hosts the show “Inamicul Public” (The Public Enemy), on Jurnal TV and continues to create and publish content via Curaj.tv and YouTube in his continued push for Moldovan civil and human rights.