10 media NGOs brace for new monitoring of observing broadcasting laws

Ten NGOs dealing with media and human rights, conducted by the Moldovan Broadcasters Association APEL, will continue to eye the way in which the broadcasting laws are observed, Info-Prim Neo. APEL maintains the good-faith implementation of the legal provisions could lead to essential changes in the Moldovan broadcasting. The 2007 monitoring showed the main actors commit severe deviations from the legal frame, conditioned, on the one hand, by robust and obvious interference on behalf of the political and economic factors into the whole area of broadcasting, and, on the other hand, by the limited ability of the civil society to counterbalance this influence. According to a press release of APEL, this interference, as the international practice shows, can be lowered including by monitoring and informing on the way in which the legal frame is implemented. The objectives of the new monitoring of the way in which the Broadcasting Code is applied into practice, launched on April 1, this year, consist in analyzing the correspondence of the national law with the recommendations of the Council of Europe on the activity of the Broadcasting Coordinating Council, of the Observers Councils of the public companies Teleradio-Moldova and Teleradio-Gagauzia. Selected programs of the two public institutions will be analyzed and their behavior will be monitored, as well as the conduct of the Broadcasting Council and the Observers Councils during the race for the 2009 elections. Evaluating the changes within broadcasting following the application of the new law, informing the national and international public opinion on possible deviations, as well as developing recommendations and suggestions to better the implementation of the law are other key objectives. APEL announces its willingness to cooperate with the broadcasters and the authorities formed in conformity with the law in order to institute democratic principles in the functioning of the Moldovan broadcasting. The monitoring results, the analysis of quality and quantity indices, any other information on the implementation of the project will be posted the Association’s web-site: www.apel.md. The project is unfolded by APEL with the support of the Soros Foundation-Moldova.