Media nongovernmental organizations demand that the president of the Competition Council should vacate his post and that the members of the Council’s board should be dismissed for not reacting to the public signals concerning the violation of the Competition Law, which favored the distortion of the advertising market, IPN reports.

In a statement signed by the NGOs, these say a year and a half has passed since four TV channels filed a complaint to the Council, informing this about a cartel agreement between two advertising agencies that promote the business interests of media holdings. “Both the previous and the current administrations of the Competition Council delayed the investigations for unfounded reasons and took no measures to penalize the anticompetition practices on the advertising market of Moldova,“ runs the statement.

The signatory NGOs request Parliament to hasten the adoption of the new draft law on advertising that was worked out by civil society experts and to supplement the Competition Law with provisions that would remove the danger of appearance of new monopoles on the mass media and advertising markets.

The statement was signed by the Association of Independent Press, the Journalistic Investigations Center, the Center for the Promotion of Freedom of Expression and Access to Information “Acces-info”, the Association of Independent Telejournalists, the Electronic Press Association and the Committee for the Freedom of the Press.