The Association for Participatory Democracy (ADEPT) put forward draft regulations on the legal framework governing election coverage and political campaigning in the media during the election period that were devised in partnership with the OSCE Mission. They were discussed in public debates on December 6, Info-Prim Neo reports. One the experts Eugeniu Rybka said the regulations on election coverage specify a series of Election Code provisions and differentiates between the online pages of the media outlets and of the organizations that do not represent the mass media. They also define the principles of equity, balance and impartiality. Under the regulations, the media outlets must provide the right to reply within three days of the submission of the application. If they cannot, the Broadcasting Coordination Council or the court will oblige the media outlet to publish the reply in another media organization. If it avoids doing it without reason, it will have to pay compensation. The regulations also modify the article “Content of the statement on the editorial policy”, saying the statement must contain the name of the owner of the media outlet. Central Election Commission (CEC) chairman Iurie Ciocan said there is no marked difference between the existing regulations and the new ones, except for penalties and clear inference in the work of the advertising economic entities and their financial-economic policy. “I ask you to fin ten differences between the regulations. I don’t think that somebody will find them. I could not find them,” said Iurie Ciocan. ADEPT executive director Igor Botan said the Association’s goal was to start from the very bottom. “Our mission was to identity local experts. The next stage was to organize a roundtable meeting with representatives of all the parties involved. The logic was for the experts to start work out the regulations based on what exists. Their task was to reach a generalization and synthesis point so that these regulations could be used permanently,” he stated. Jaqueline Carpenter, senior consultant on human rights of the OSCE Mission to Moldova, said the proposed regulations can bring more clarity and predictability for all stakeholders. The head of the parliamentary commission on culture, education, sport and mass media Chiril Luchinski said in the context that the media does not have professionalism. “Unfortunately, we still face the risk of learning from the neighboring countries’ experience when the mass media use different possibilities to promote party interests, which is wrong,” he stated. Communist lawmaker Alexandr Petkov, a member of the commission, said on the one hand the regulations on election coverage are good, but on the other hand they arouse many questions, including why publishing the reply in another media outlet? “Should we punish somebody else for what somebody did?” he asked. The regulations were developed under an OSCE-led project with local experts devoted to simplifying and unifying election legislation and procedure, in alignment with the recommendations of the Election Observation Mission of the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.