Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu responded to the criticism leveled by media NGOs and political opponents over the transfer of the national public broadcaster “Teleradio-Moldova” back under the Parliamentr’s oversight from the Audiovisual Council’s supervision. He noted the move is aimed at increasing the responsibility of this intuition and at normalizing its work, IPN reports.
Igor Grosu said they aim to make the managers of state institutions work in the interests of the citizens. The reaction comes after representatives of the Party “Dignity and Truth Platform” accused the government of reanimating the political control over institutions by transferring “Teleradio-Moldova” back under the Parliament’s oversight.
“Our interest is to have a public TV channel that does its job as it is paid with taxpayers’ money. The management of this TV channel was exploited by at least two governments, the first time by Plahotniuc and later by Dodon. We do not need the services of an obedient board. This institution should work according to rules. The Audiovisual Council, which is a market regulator, cannot say that it assesses the others when it controls a TV channel,” Igor Grosu stated in the talk show “Prime Time” on PrimeTV channel.
Igor Grosu also said that the ensuring of parliamentary control over the public TV channel and radio station is a European practice that enables all the parliamentary parties to signal the abuses committed by a media institution paid with public money.
“The model applied in Romania is similar. The National Television is assessed by a parliamentary commission and any MP, of the government or of the opposition, can report any witnessed bias from the Parliament’s rostrum. Until the opposite is proven, let us bring things there in order. What did we see at the National Television? We saw biased policy when the elections in Chisinau were annulled. They broadcast symphonic music and intensely campaigned for Dodon on our money. We want to build a functional institution,” stated Igor Grosu.
The law to amend the Code of Audiovisual Media Services was adopted by the PAS majority on November 4. The mandate of all the members of the Supervisory and Development Board and of the director general of “Teleradio-Moldova” Company ended the next day, after President Maia Sandu’s decree to promulgate the law was published in the Official Gazette.
