The current Broadcasting Code that was passed by Parliament concomitantly in two readings on February 26 does not differ conceptually from the previous one. Furthermore, the current Code does not take into account the faints made by politicians and, in particular, the Broadcasting Coordination Council to dribble the law, journalist Ion Terguta said in a press club meeting staged by the Independent Journalism Center, IPN reports.

According to Ion Terguta, in Moldova there are problems related to the concentration of media outlets and ownership. “The problem is that the radio and TV in our country were planned and developed as instruments of manipulation. I wanted this law to introduce a new approach in the area of broadcasting, which should have been perceived like an economic area where the laws of economy prevail,” said the journalist.

Independent Journalism Center director Nadine Gogu said media convergence is now one of the most serious problems in broadcasting. “Normally, we should have rejoiced when such a law was adopted, but we didn’t because, when a law is adopted in two readings during 20 minutes, it is logical for questions to appear, such as Why was it done and Who does it serve?” she stated.

According to Nadine Gogu, transparency wasn’t ensured in the process of adopting the law. “We had access to the bill that was placed on the Parliament’s website. It was the initial bill, but they voted another bill. In several days, we found the text and saw that there were problems in it,” she said.

One of the bill authors Adrian Lebedinschi said they examined the practice of the ECHR, which says that any license is equal to the ownership right and, if the license is withdrawn before time, the right to ownership is violated.

Adrian Lebedinschi noted that he didn’t sign the bill for this to be transmitted to President Nicolae Timofti for promulgation. “The only solution is to go to the Council of Europe to ask for an appraisal of this bill,” he stated.

Broadcasting Coordination Council member Olga Gututui said there is a problem in the broadcasting sector and this cannot be solved by simply reducing the number of licenses. “We should consult the legislation of Romania. I think we should intervene at legislative level so that the Council could not avoid dealing with this problem,” she stated.