The Friday’s issue of the Official Gazette of Moldova published the refusal of the Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) to satisfy the request filed by the Romanian Television Corporation (SRTV) and annul the BCC’s decision to put up for contest the state-owned relay no.2 which used to rebroadcast the Romanian channel TVR1 in Moldova. Relying on Article 14 of Moldova’s Law on Administrative Disputes and Article 27 of the Broadcasting Code, SRTV argued that BCC adopted the respective decision “in disregard of the legislation governing the audiovisual” and claimed damages of half a million euros. BCC found that SRTV’s claims were devoid of legal grounds and considered the request as unfounded. Timofei Andros, ex-Minister of Informatics, Information and Telecommunications, who made arrangements in 1992 for TVR1 to start broadcasting in Moldova, stated to Info-Prim Neo that BCC’s decision of July 31 was incorrect and illegal. In 1992 the Parliament’s presidium adopted a relevant act, therefore BCC’s decision was beyond its power. Speaking about the financial reasons set forth by the Ministry of Information Development when asking the BCC to withdraw the right to use the relay no.2 from SRTV, Andros reminded that the Moldovan authorities decided to cover the rebroadcasting in return for some debts owed to the Romanian Government. So this means that Romania paid in advance for several years, and even if there were some debts for a couple of moths, the issue could have been easily settled, had the Ministry of Information Development talked with SRTV, which has always been open for discussions, Andros concluded. The scandal around TVR1 rebroadcasting originated on July 31 when the BCC decided to put the frequencies used to retransmit TVR1 for auction, on the grounds that SRTV had failed to honour its contractual obligations. Heated discussions among the Councils’ members as well as protest reactions on the part of the civil society followed afterwards. On September 27, the BCC gave the license for the state-owned relay no.2 to the newly set up television channel 2 Plus, which promised to continue retransmitting TVR1. However, earlier this week, 2 Plus announced it would quit rebroadcasting TVR1, opting for Antena International instead.