Antena C and Euro TV cases may reach ECHR

Journalists from the former public broadcasters Antena C and Euro TV intend to reach the ECHR, their lawyer, Maria Orlov, has told Info-Prim Neo. According to her, an application to lodge the dossier to the European Court of Human Rights will be drafted shortly. The decision has been taken after the Supreme Court of Justice rejected the appeal forwarded by journalists on December 19, 2007, and kept as valid the writ of the Chisinau Court of Appeal. “The journalists intend to go to the ECHR to question the truthfulness of Moldova’s whole justice. Now there are two trials heard by the Court of Appeal and two trials heard by the Supreme Court of Justice as to Antena C and Euro TV,” Maria Orlov says. She says all the writs issued by the Court of Appeal and by the Supreme Court of Justice will be sent to the ECHR to establish whether they are fair. Now the ECHR has got an application from media consumers of the former public stations from Chisinau. The application was lodged in September 2007, after it was rejected by the Court of Appeal and by the Supreme Court of Justice. Now the former employees are to submit such an application. According to lawyer Orlov, the main claim of the former employees of the former public broadcasters is that listeners remain without public stations, and the employees lost their jobs. Antena C and Euro TV Chisinau were sold earlier in 2007, following a decision approved of by the Chisinau municipal councilors from the Communist and the Christian-Democratic factions. The privatization, and especially the way it was carried out in, was contested by the civil society, politicians and diplomats. The decision was sued by employees of the broadcasters, and by consumers of media products.