Audiovisual Code comes into force

The Audiovisual Code, voted by the Parliament in final reading on July 27, came into force on August 18, after its publication in the Official Monitor of the Republic of Moldova. The most important amendments related to the normative acts which regulated the area of local audiovisual until now, regard appointing and functioning of the Audiovisual Coordinating Council (ACC), activity of the Observers Council of “Teleradio-Moldova” (TRM) and of the local broadcasting institutions. According to the new law, in the future ACC members will be selected by the specialized committee and by the legal parliamentary committee for appointing and immunities, at the proposal of public associations, trade union associations, patronages and representatives of religious organizations. Further, the Parliament will confirm the candidates. Mandates’ period is 6 years. The composition of the Council will be renewed from time to time. Initially, 3 candidates will be appointed for a period of 6 years, 3 – for 4 years and other 3 – for 2 years. When the terms will expire, the next candidates will be appointed for a period of 6 years. The conditions for the appointment contest of ACC will be published within two months in the Official Monitor. When the aforementioned term will expire, the statute, structure, expenses and the wages of the employees of ACC will be submitted to the Parliament. The Audiovisual Code includes the activity of an Observers Council (OC) of TRM, which will have the duty to change the statute of the company, will evaluate its progresses and will decide upon further actions on improving the company. OC will include 9 persons: specialized public personalities. ACC will propose to the Parliament for approval 2 candidates for each vacant position in CO and mandate’s period will be of 4 years. According to the new Code, local authorities, the founders of broadcasting institutions, will have to issue during 3 months decisions upon the reorganization of these institutions. President of the Republic of Moldova, Vladimir Voronin has promulgated the Audiovisual Code, approved by the Parliament on July 27, 2006, the Press Service of the presidency announced. According to a press release, the Audiovisual Code aims at protecting the rights of the consumers and instituting democratic principles in the area of Audiovisual in Moldova, as well as protecting laws and constitutional freedoms, broadcasting and re-broadcasting services, control of society over the audiovisual. At the same time, the Code settles the activity of public audiovisual institutions, editorial independence, free access to broadcasted information, protecting the rights of consumers, protecting language and national cultural patrimony and national informational space. [Info-Prim Neo presents a retrospect of the events linked to the debates on the most controversial moments of the Code] The draft Audiovisual Code, drafted by communist, democrat and Christian-democrat MPs was adopted in first reading on April 6 by the Parliament. The journalists and the representatives of the civil society qualified the document as political and which will allow the government to interfere in the affairs of local public institutions. In April-May the representatives of the civil society organized public debates on the draft Audiovisual Code, which finished on May 29 with a National Conference, where a list of recommendations for improving the documents was elaborated. In the same day, through the standing representative of Moldova to the Council of Europe, the Expertise of CoE was sent to Moldovan authorities, European officials asserted serious problems in the document. The experts criticized the ability of the government or of the governmental alliance to influence and control ACC, and by this all broadcasters. MP, Victor Stepaniuc announced at the end of June that the Parliament agrees with the majority of recommendations and conclusions of CoE, included in the expertise of the draft Audiovisual Code and that the Parliament will fulfill them at 99%. Alexandru Dorogan, the head of the Electronic Press Association, considers that the Council of Observers of TRM Company must be appointed by ACC. According to him, the public institution must be publicly controlled, so a mechanism that would ensure this control must be identified, otherwise the mechanism proposed by these amendments will not work and will not be secure. The chairman of the Electronic Press Association APEL declared on a show at “Vocea Basarabiei” radio station that “Now it is not only about complying with the recommendations, the new law must comply with the standards of those that are or want to become EU members. We must prove our goal of European integration” The Chairman of the Journalists Union, Valeriu Saharneanu declared for Info-Prim Neo that the statements about the 80% modification of AC are not expressing the nature of these amendments. He considers that sufficient subterfuges are still standing and the present draft AC is “even worse and unproductive” as the present legislation is. “It is clear that the public audiovisual will be again controlled by the government, because the Council of Observers, which was to some extent autonomous will be now controlled, because its members will be appointed by ACC. As well, the draft AC aims at destroying local public broadcasters and legalizes the attacks over the private ones”, Saharneanu states, saying in the end that the present draft AC is very far from complying with European standards as the officials declare. Audiovisual Code (AC) was voted on Thursday, July 27 in final reading without coming to an agreement between the MPs of all factions and independent ones. The draft AC, proposed by the Parliament for examination in second reading, generated controversial disputes which lasted almost 2 hours. The draft had about 170 amendments, some of them being intensely debated by the MPs. The most important changes regarding the draft approved in first reading are those referring to appointing and functioning of the Audiovisual Coordinating Council (ACC), the activity of the Observers Council of “Tele Radio Moldova” (TRM) Council and transforming the local public broadcasters into bureaus under TRM. In this way, according to the Code, the members of the ACC will be appointed by the Parliament with the of 3/5 of the MPs, at the proposal of the specialized commission, being promoted by the public associations, trade union associations, patronages and religious organizations. The members of ACC will be appointed for a period of 6 years, but the commission will be renewed at intervals: initially 3 candidates will be chosen for a term of 6 years, 3 – for 4 years and other 3 – for 2 years. The majority of MPs rejected the proposal of the MP, Valeriu Cosarciuc, namely voting 5 members by the parliament and another 4 – by the most representative civil society. Victor Stepaniuc, the head of the specialized commission declared that it is hard to establish the most representative civil society. In this context the MP Anatol Onceanu expressed his concern regarding the fact that the members of ACC will be selected by the public organizations obedient to the government. The civil society expresses its concern regarding the recent amendments to the media legislation in the RM, a joint declaration of several specialized NGOs states, cited by Info-Prim Neo. The statement, signed by the Independent Press Association, the Journalists’ Union of Moldova, the Press Freedom Committee and the Independent Journalism Center, points out the following shortcomings of the latest amendments to the legislation: the rush adoption of the Audiovisual Code (AC), a version disapproved by the civil society; the transformation of the municipal “Antena C” and “Euro TV” stations into territorial subsidiaries of the “Teleradio” Company; the lack of a ceiling for settling compensations in libel cases, a disadvantaging situation for journalists. The Declaration’s signers blame the Parliament for organizing debates over the draft AC in a “formal manner and in a hurry”, just a day before its examination in the Parliament’s sitting, “without giving the Media NGOs a chance to see the text proposed for adoption”. This is, according to the signers, “one more proof revealing the Parliament’s faked co-operation with the civil society.” As regards the transformation of the municipal broadcasting stations into TRM’s bureaus, as the AC requires, the civil society warns that it will lead to “centralized editorial policies, censorship and to the disappearance of alternative sources of information.” The independent councilor, Mihai Roscovan considers that by transforming the municipal radio and TV stations “Antena C” and “Euro TV” into subsidiaries of TRM, the ones that will suffer the most will be the inhabitants of the Chisinau municipality who will be deprived of a truthful information source. The final goal of this intention is to liquidate “Antena C” and “Euro TV”, because they are alternative sources of information, Mihai Roscovan declared. The leader of MNA Faction in CMC, Pavel Caba appreciated the affiliation of the municipal radio and TV stations to TRM as an “aberration”. According to Caba, the MPs should have at first consulted the opinion of CMC regarding this initiative, because such decisions are not made over night. The leader of MNA also declared that the authors of this idea “again do what they want in order to control everything in Chisinau”. The leader of People’s Christian-Democrat Party faction in CMC, Alexabdru Corduneanu avoided talking about the proposals regarding the affiliation of the local audiovisual to TRM. Corduneanu appreciated the Audiovisual Code, which according to him, is welcomed and will halt the practices of promoting some group interests by some TV and radio stations. “I hope that the law will be equitable and will allow to all journalists to respect their deontological statute”, the Christian-democrat MP declared for Antena C. The head of communists’ faction, Svetlana Popa refused to comment upon this issue, declaring for “Antena C” at first the Parliament should decide upon this issue and afterwards to organize debates on it. The Culture Trade Union (USC) re also concerned about the proposals of certain parliamentarians to affiliate the municipal and local mass media institutions to the Public Company „Teleradio Moldova” (TRM). The general interim Mayor of Chisinau, Vasile Ursu states that the idea of transforming Euro TV and Antena C into subsidiaries of “Teleradio-Moldova” is a possibility, but it is remote. The local public administration needs municipal public radio and TV stations and it would not be correct if the public audiovisual would be centralized, Ursu states. “It would be correct if these sources of information would not be involved in political games and if they would present what is happening in municipality. In this case no one would try to liquidate, merge or reorganize them”, Vasile Ursu declared for Antena C. Once the draft Audiovisual Code came into force, the Audiovisual Law from October 3, 1995 and the Law on the public national institution “Teleradio-Moldova” Company from June 26, 2002 was annulled. The new Code includes 9 chapters and 68 articles.