The Audiovisual Council (AC) didn’t extend the broadcast licenses of the TV channels Familia and Primul în Moldova, invoking violations, including of the own conceptions of media services programs, IPN reports.
AC member Ruslan Mihalevschi said there are suspicions of anti-competition practices and risks of appearance of a dominant position in the formation of public opinion. It goes to seven TV media services that belong to and/or are affiliated to the former chairman of the Democratic Party Vlad Plahotniuc.
According to Ruslan Mihalevschi, in the case of Familia, the financing sources are not sufficiently argued. The costs planned for producing local programs exceed the budget for the whole previous year, according to the annual progress report presented by the broadcaster. The provision of a license in this case encourages media concentration and doesn’t ensure audiovisual pluralism.
AC head Liliana Vițu reminded of the sanctions imposed on Familia for the absence of local programs. The channel had the possibility of showing that it has production capacitates and that it is in the service of the public interest during its nine years of work. “There are reasonable suctions about the final beneficiaries and about the motivation to develop a TV channel. This aims to purchase programs, not to produce them itself, but the purpose of the existence of a TV channel is to have own programs better than of other channels,” stated Liliana Vițu.
As to Primul în Moldova, its license wasn’t extended as, according to the AC members, the general conception wasn’t respected. A monitoring inspection carried out in September by the Council showed the main news bulletins and programs of Primul în Moldova form part of the broadcast schedule of ITV.
