The members of the parliamentary commission on culture, education, research, sport and mass media established that the unclear and ambiguous legislation on broadcasting caused confusion and led to false attacks on the company StarNet. According to a communiqué the company, quoted by IPN, in the June 11 meeting of the commission, there were presented arguments and evidence showing that StarNet provides only Internet services. Thorough the Internet, the users can benefit from a number of online services free or for payment.

“The Broadcasting Coordination Council confuses the term ‘retransmission through any means’, which is used in the digital and analogical cable systems, with client-server technologies and the distribution of the media content over the Internet, where the user does not receive particular signals, but accesses the media content. The Internet is a global network providing free access to information and it is not regulated by licensing. The Internet services are called online services, which are gratis or provided for money. The access to online media services in the global Internet network cannot be limited or controlled,” said Alexandru Machedon, president of the concern StarNet.

Based on the findings, the members of the parliamentary commission unanimously adopted a decision to set up a working group consisting of representatives of civil society, the business community and foreign experts, which would work out proposals for eliminating the deficiencies from the national legislation.

The commission also decided to formulate an official declaration providing that the Internet in Moldova cannot be regulated and should remain free and uncensored and to submit it to Parliament.