The unwillingness of most of members of the Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) to fine the national public TV channel has been a bad sign both for the public opinion and the audience. BCC has thereby made itself responsible for the way the newscasts are being produced at “Moldova 1”, BCC member Vlad Turcanu stated on June 26. Turcanu made this statement following a BCC meeting, which rejected the proposal by several members to impose a 2,000 lei fine on the national TV channel for repeated breaches of the Audiovisual Code’s provisions concerning pluralism and impartiality in newscasts. Turcanu said he was disappointed with the decision and with the fact that most of members didn’t take into account the arguments set forth, namely that “M 1” still disregards pluralism of opinion, other sources of information than the official one, and continues to overlook certain public events. Turcanu thinks that decisions by BCC of that kind cannot spur the development of the national TV channel. Asked to comment on these statements, BCC Chair Corneliu Mihalachi stated that BCC is a collegial body, and each of its members is entitled to an opinion. In addition, he says that the body to represent the national TV Company is the Supervisory Board (SB) alone, so the fact that some BCC members try to assume the competences of that body is abusive in his opinion. “We find certain irregularities occurring at all broadcasters and there should be an even-handed attitude towards all of them. We must not speculate with penalties, and if someone is so keen to see a certain broadcaster developing, he should produce recommendations first”, Mihalachi said. Referring to the fact that BCC applied sanctions to other broadcasters without any prior recommendations, the BCC chairman said that such a practice would be excised. The BCC meeting also took stock of the way the decisions taken earlier in May concerning the newscasts of Moldova 1, NIT channel and Antena C radio have been respected. The BCC members agreed almost unanimously that Antena C and NIT have registered progress lately. However, the situation at the national public TV channel stirred up controversy. While some members said that the situation improved, others criticised the quality of the monitored newscasts, saying that no improvements have been registered. SB Chair Mariana Slapac also said that “even though the situation is getting better, there are still some very poor newscasts”. Ludmila Vasilache’s and Vlad Turcanu’s proposal to impose a 2,000 lei fine on the channel received three votes out of eight and one abstention.