The TV channels whose broadcast licenses were suspended for the duration of the state of emergency favored persons who were subject to international sanctions, misinformed about national events and about the war in Ukraine, said the head of the Audiovisual Council Liliana Vițu, noting the Commission for Exceptional Situations’ decision will contribute to protecting the national information space from propaganda and misinformation, IPN reports.
According to Vițu, the Commission’s decision is based on the monitoring reports of the Audiovisual Council and of independent media experts. The punished channels constantly violated the media legislation, justifying Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“Monitoring reports compiled by Audiovisual Council and media NGOs, such as the IJC and APEL, pointed to the repeated violation by these channels of provisions of the Code of Media Services. Implicitly, in the course of this year penalties were imposed for lack of correct information in the coverage of national events and for propagating the war and the aggression against Ukraine. They constantly defied the rules in the audiovisual sector. For example, before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, four of the six channels actively retransmitted Russian news programs that constituted an information attack on Ukraine,” Liliana Vițu told a news conference.
Moreover, she noted the given TV channels chose to adopt the tactic of manipulation by omissions, ignoring the news items from Ukraine. They also promoted persons put on international sanctions lists in breach of an earlier decision taken by the Commission for Exceptional Situations.
“So, these channels chose to keep silent about the war. For nonobservance of Article 13 alone, the ensuring of correct informing, the following sanctions were imposed: NTV Moldova – 22 penalties, Primul în Moldova – 17, RTR Moldova – 14, Orhei TV – 13, TV6 – 13, Accent TV – 5. Furthermore, four of the six channels changed their final beneficiaries during the last few months without the AC’s consent. Also, all these channels do not obey the Code’s provisions concerning the amount of local content,” said the head of the Audiovisual Council.
On December 16, the Commission for Emergency Situations decided to suspend the licenses of six Moldovan TV channels for the duration of the current state of emergency with the aim of preventing the risk of disinformation or attempts to manipulate public opinion. These are Primul in Moldova, RTR Moldova, Accent TV, NTV Moldova, TV6, and Orhei TV. The Audiovisual Council found a lack of correct information in the coverage of national events, but also of the war in Ukraine. The authorities also said that these channels are closely tied to politicians and businessmen who were put on international sanctions lists.
