Audiovisual from Moldova Publicly Debated

The legislative initiatives regarding the audiovisual of Moldova will be the topic for 3 public debates and for a national Conference organized by the Public Policy Institute with the support of the Soros-Moldova Foundation. These activities will be held within the Press Freedom Days. According to the organizers, the goal of these events is to discuss the draft laws and to formulate some proposals for improving the legislative background in the area. The first public debate will take place on May 5 and will focus on the problem of the regulating authority in the area, the key subjects being the creation principles of the authority’s structure, its prerogatives and duties and also the mechanisms of ensuring autonomy and exercise of the functions. The event will take place at the Dedeman hotel and will start at 10:00 o’clock. On 12 May, in the same place and hour will be organized the debate regarding the public radio/TV service. At the debates will be discussed the mechanisms of ensuring the editorial independence, financing the public institutions, the methods of performing the public control of institution’s activity, encouraging the development of the radio/TV service. On the third public debate that will take place on May 19 will be discussed the activity of the private broadcasters, inclusively the mechanism and methods of offering the licenses, the activity and competition environment, the relationship between the broadcasters and the activity regulating authorities. The debate will take place at the Jolly Alon hotel and will start at 10:00 o’clock. The evaluation conference of the debates will take place on May 29 and 30 at the Dedeman hotel, starting at 10:00. At the conference will be draft a series of proposals that will be sent to the specialized parliamentary commission. Info-Prim Neo reminds that many participants of the international seminar regarding the national broadcasting and adjusting the regulation juridical framework in the area to the European standards that took place on April 25, expressed their conviction that the audiovisual of the Republic of Moldova is in a critical situation of inaction and that it is necessary to elaborate a development strategy for the area. But the experts had different opinions regarding the necessity of local public audiovisual some of them even stating against the existence of these kinds of institutions. The Draft Audiovisual Code adopted on April 6 by the Parliament in first reading, stipulates the activity of a single public broadcaster _the “Teleradio-Moldova” company. Some experts consider that the draft proposes a politicized audiovisual. At the same time, in a joint statement of the foreign embassies from Moldova and of several international organizations, launched on the occasion of the Press Freedom Days is presented that the progress registered by the Moldovan authorities in the last year regarding the reformation of the media field is insufficient.