A group of MPs appealed to Constitutional Court requesting annulment of Audiovisual Code provisions

Members of the parliamentary faction of the “Moldova Noastra” Alliance Ion Plesca, Leonid Bujor and Anatol Onceanu, attacked in the Constitutional Court some of the provisions of the Audiovisual Code, allowing for the transfer of the public stations “Euro TV Chisinau” and “Antena C” into private control. In the request submitted to the court, AMN MPs solicit the control of the compliance with the constitution of the articles providing the prohibition of the participation of public authorities in founding private audiovisual institutions and the obligation of local public authorities to reorganise the public audiovisual institutions which exist in their communities. On the background of the omission of the legal framework for the creation and functioning of public local institutions, of the exclusive permission offered in this sense just to the UTA Gagauz Yeri and the eastern zone of Moldova, MPs consider that the constitutional provisions are violated concerning the local autonomy, the rights of local communities, equality before the law and non-discrimination, freedom of information and expression of opinions. According to the MPs, depriving the inhabitants of the capital of the public audiovisual institutions is a common plan of the Communists’ Party, led by Vladimir Voronin, and the People’s Christian Democrat Party led by Iurie Rosca. Their representatives applied on the high level a scheme of promoting legislative and administrative decisions, oriented towards splitting the 2 media institutions between the groups controlled by the 2 allied parties. The AMN faction have supported solutions which correspond to the public interest, in the Parliament, and after their rejection, revealed the game of group interests which affect the citizens’ right to freedom of information and opinion expression, a party’s statement says. According to the Constitution, “Laws and other regulations or parts thereof become null and void from the moment that the Constitutional Court passes the appropriate decisions to that effect.”