A number of media nongovernmental organizations called upon the Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) to equally treat all the broadcasters and punish those who do not ensure a sufficient plurality of sources in their news programs in accordance with the law, as in the case of NIT, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a statement issued by the NGOs. According to them, the viewpoint of the political opposition must be regularly reflected in the newscasts, while the BCC should make sure that the public broadcaster and the private broadcasters observe the principles of equidistance, neutrality and objectivity, as required by the Broadcasting Code. The NGOs say that the disappearance of a media outlet is always something unwanted because it means the narrowing of the plurality and diversity of opinions. They regret that the BCC penalized the private TV channel NIT on April 5, but say that they do not have reasons to consider this decision as illegal because the channel indeed does not obey the Broadcasting Code, does not ensure a plurality of sources, its news programs do not cover the events in an unbiased way, while in some cases the broadcast materials incite to hatred. “These deviations from the legal and deontological norms were repeatedly emphasized in the thematic reports of the media NGOs, while the BCC earlier imposed a series of penalties on NIT for these violations,” say the NGOs. The statement was signed by the Independent Journalism Center, the Association of Independent Press, the Journalistic Investigations Center, the Center “Acces-Info”, the Committee for the Freedom of the Press, and the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections.