Antena C seeks to create commission for examining technical faults that caused disruption of broadcasting

“Antena C” radio station requests to create a joint commission for examining the equipment that caused on December 16 the interruption of the broadcasting signal. An application in this respect was submitted to the State Enterprise “Radiocomunicatii” on Tuesday December 19. The reason for the application is the fact that at the request of the radio station “Antena C” dated December 18 concerning the causes for disrupting the broadcasting, “Radiocomunicatii” SE made a response that does not specify clearly the cause of interruption. The explanations of the enterprise’s technical director, Veaceslav Pascal, regarding the fault that caused the interruption of the broadcasting signal are considered by the station’s administration as generalized and inexplicit. “Antena C” requests to create this commission within 24 hours since receiving the application, according to the procedure, and to announce about the results of examinations not later than 24 hours since creating the commission for examining the equipment. The municipal radio station suggests that the commission is composed of 6 members at least: one representative from “Antena C” and one from “Radiocomunicatii”, and four independent technical experts, named by “Antena C” and “Radiocomunicatii”. Antena C's broadcasting signal was interrupted Saturday afternoon (2.00 pm). The technical director of “Radiocomunicatii” SE said the interruption was caused by a technical problem at the radio relay, but technicians were not allowed to see the defective equipment. Thus, it is for the first time in over eight years since foundation when “Antena C” ceased its activity allegedly due to a technical problem at “Radiocomunicatii”. Recently, OSCE head of Mission to Moldova, Ambassador Louis O’Neill said that it is striking that such a serious technical problem appeared at the precise moment when critical views of the way the station is being privatized were on the air.