Besides the multiple violations of the national legislation committed by amending the Broadcasting Code to ban the retransmission of programs of Russian TV channels in Moldova, there was also violated the Constitution so as to make the President of the Republic of Moldova do what he didn’t want to, the President’s secretary Ion Ceban stated in the public debate “Anti-propaganda law”: necessity, advantages and risks”, which was staged by IPN News Agency and Radio Moldova.
In the debate, Ion Ceban said that in a meeting of President Igor Dodon and resident ambassadors in Chisinau, including of the U.S. and the EU, the latter said that they were against such bans, but he does not think that the West didn’t play a role in this regard. The people should be able to choose the program they like and watch what they consider interesting and this is the only correct approach.
The President’s secretary said the introduced ban represents a serious violation of the human rights as everyone has the right to information. “There is legislation that guarantees the freedom of expression and no one should intervene to give appraisals as we can class as relevant or irrelevant also some of the TV channels in other parts of the world to which the public has now access, including in Moldova. We should allow people to decide what kind of programs and TV channels they prefer to watch,” said Ion Ceban.
He believes that this was done to close many of the TV channels, including local ones, which retransmitted a large part of the Russian programs. Owing to the new amendments, these would not be able to produce the national content required by law. “You start by not watching the channel you don’t like. I always considered that any TV channel has the right to exist, regardless of the editorial policy,” said the President’s secretary.
According to Ion Ceban, the changes to the broadcasting legislation were made with the aim of worsening the relations with Russia, which is a strategic partner, and of promoting the interests of the Western partners. A foreign TV channel influences the people less than the corruption of these, which is a widely used practice in Moldova. “Ultimately, this move will have a boomerang effect on the government, even if it was designed to please someone in the West. We claim we live in a democratic state and should thus have democratic approaches,” he noted.
The amendments to the Broadcasting Code by which the retransmission of particular foreign programs is banned, were adopted by Parliament on December 12, 2017. The new norms were promulgated after the Constitutional Court temporarily suspended President Igor Dodon from office for the reason that he refused to promulgate the amendments.
The public debate “Anti-propaganda law”: necessity, advantages and risks” was the 86th installment of the series of debates “Developing political culture by public debates” that are held with support from the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.
