The Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) will explain the decisions it will make when issuing licenses by contest using regulations. The guidelines, nomenclature and models of the documents needed to participate in the contest were published in the Official Gazette on Friday, November 7. The regulations stipulate the conditions, criteria and procedure for adopting motivated decisions to issue broadcast licenses by contest. Under the regulations, the BCC will designate the winner of the contest and will issue broadcast licenses after publicly, objectively and impartially examining the offers and hearing the contest participants, according to selection criteria and taking into account the informative notes of the BCC’s Examination and Licensing Division. At public meetings, the BCC will decide whether to grant a license according to the following general criteria: respect for the public interest; originality of the editorial project which aims at developing the national broadcasting sector; insurance of a balance between the national, regional and local program services; avoidance of monopole abuse and of practices that hinder free competition; protection of the state culture and language and of the culture and languages of national minorities; offering of priority to socially important programs; the technical, financial and professional capacity for implementing the editorial project, etc. The BCC will announce thematic contests for the available frequencies. Before the contest, the Council can organize public consultations and hearings with the aim of finalizing the conception and editorial project. The civil society’s proposals will serve as recommendations. The contests for available frequencies and channels will be held separately from the contests for used frequencies announced when the period of validity of the licenses expire. The contest participants must obligatorily fill out the form concerning the general conception of the program service that will lay at the basis of the broadcaster’s work and will be annexed to the broadcast license. The civil society and Opposition politicians repeatedly accused the BCC of granting licenses for radio and television frequencies according to political interests, of not using clear selection criteria in contests and of not explaining its decisions.