Valentina Basiul

Valentina Basiul (1982 – 26 November 2025) was a Moldovan journalist. She was particularly known for her investigative journalism, including on issues of corruption in the Moldovan government and the Transnistria conflict.

Background Basiul was born in Cocieri, Dubăsari District in 1982, in what was then the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. Basiul's childhood was impacted by the Transnistrian War, an armed conflict that occurred between 1990 and 1992 between pro-Transnistrian and pro-Moldovan forces. Basiul's childhood home was located close to Transnistrian-controlled territory.

Basiul was married to Mihai Tașcă, a historian, with whom she lived in Chișinău.

In 2010, Basiul was a member of the original journalistic team for Adevărul Moldova, a Moldovan edition of the Romanian newspaper Adevărul. She wrote for the paper's first edition, and was its editor-in-chief at one point. She left the newspaper in 2014 in order to become an editor and reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Chișinău office, known as Radio Europa Liberă, under Vasile Botnaru. Basiul left the station in 2022.

Basiul wrote guest articles for other Romanian and Moldovan outlets, as well as non-governmental organisations such as the Independent Press Association and the Centre for Investigative Journalism. In 2016, she published a book, Prin ochii presei. Moldova. Un sfert de secol , an analysis of the development of Romanian and Russian-language media in Moldova over 25 years from its independence in 1991. Her funeral took place in her hometown of Cocieri on 29 November 2025. Sorina Ștefârță, a former spokesperson for Moldovan president Maia Sandu, also expressed her condolences.