The MPs of the Shor Party registered a bill that provides for the annulment of the restrictions on the retransmission of particular programs of Russian channels. According to them, the given restrictions run counter to the Constitution and violate human rights, IPN reports.

MP Ilan Shor, who heads the Shor Party, in a video conference said the people are discriminated when they are deprived of the right to watch more programs retransmitted from Russia, especially because many persons prefer these programs. The amendments by which the given restrictions were imposed are unconstitutional and unfounded. Ilan Shor invited all the parties to vote this bill so as to offer the people the possibility of being really free.

MP Igor Himici said that by voting those provisions in 2017, Moldova flouted its own legal acts and the international conventions to which it is a party. A solution for ensuring the correct informing of people is not to ban programs and TV channels, but to stimulate media culture that would contribute to combating fake news. The responsible authorities should focus on the fight against domestic propaganda.

MP Denis Ulanov noted it is not possible to keep the people in an informational vacuum in the 21st century. At the June 10 meeting of the Parliament’s Standing Bureau, he will demand to include the bill in the agenda of the next plenary sitting so that it is given two readings.

The amendments to the Audiovisual Code that took effect in January 2018 ban the retransmission of news, feature, military and political programs produced by states that didn’t ratify the European Convention on Transfrontier Television, including the Russian Federation.