BCC asks court to attract MID on its side in suit filed by SRTV

The Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) asked the court to attract the Ministry of Information Development (MID) on its side in the lawsuit filed by the Romanian Television Corporation (SRTV) against the Council, the representative of SRTV, lawyer Janet Hanganu told Info-Prim Neo. The BCC’s jurist Marcel Otel did not confirm the information. “I have no comment to make” said the Council’s representative in the court when asked by IPN to give details about the hearing of February 7. At the same time, the lawyer for SRTV said that the BCC’s representative argued that the state-owned network No. 2 was put up for tender at the request of the MID. Janet Hanganu specified that SRTV is not against such an appeal. The next hearing is scheduled for February 14. The scandal around TVR1 arouse on July 31, 2007 when the BCC decided to put the network No. 2 used to retransmit TVR1 in Moldova for tender on the grounds that SRTV had failed to honour its contractual obligations. A number of BCC members as well as representatives of the civil society described the decision as illegal. But the Council did not change it. On September 27, the BCC gave the license for the network to a newly set up television channel, 2 Plus. In November, SRTV took legal action against the BCC, demanding half a million euros for damages.