The media NGOs call on the MPs not to pass the bills to amend the Broadcasting Code, proposed by the Liberals and the Democratic MPs, in the second reading. They ask to postpone their examination until the next session Parliament and to merge the two bills with the new draft Broadcasting Code, IPN reports.
In a call signed by ten media nongovernmental organizations, it is said that the bill No. 218 that is promoted insistently by the Democratic Party contains provisions that will favor the broadcasters with financing secured by oligarchs and their bodies, while some of the TV and radio stations that survive with money earned from advertising services will be put in a difficult situation and will have to even stop work.
According to the NGOs, the expert appraisals of the Council of Europe and the OSCE pointed to a number of slipups in these bills, recommending to exclude some of the provisions and to supplement others. The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media and the international organization Freedom House criticized the legislative initiative. Many of the participants in the debate staged by Parliament on July 26 also criticized the bill No. 218, saying the adoption of this law will diminish the pluralism of opinions.
The representatives of NGOs call on Parliament to initiate the elaboration of legislative amendments, in concert with broadcasters and media NGOs, to stimulate the development and increase the share of the national audiovisual products. A special law is needed to protect the Moldovan mass media by specifying the conditions of access and retransmission of foreign broadcasters, as the representatives of the journalistic community asked by the roadmap approved in the Media Forum 2015.
The call was signed by the Association of Independent Press, the Independent Journalism Center, the Electronic Press Association, the Journalistic Investigations Center, the Center “Acces-Info”, the Committee for the Freedom of the Media, the Young Journalist’s Center of Moldova, etc.
