Broadcaster support fund could be used for other purposes than planned

According to a study presented by the Electronic Press Association (APEL), the organization that represents the interests of the Moldovan broadcasters, the broadcaster support fund could be used for other purposes that the projected ones, Info-Prim Neo reports. The fund was set up late last year in compliance with the new Broadcasting Code. Under the regulations concerning the management of the fund that were approved by the Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC), starting with this year the radio stations and television channels are obliged to allot one percent from their annual turnover to the fund. One of the study authors Eugen Rybca said that purposes for which the BCC planned the money transferred quarterly by the broadcasters to the fund are unjustified. Among these are the organization of trips, seminars and conferences on broadcasting, of training seminars and courses for broadcasters and the improvement of the BCC’s technical-material basis. “This fund has turned into an instrument for putting double taxes on broadcasters” Eugen Rybca considers. “The state, instead of financing the activity of the BCC, entrusted this task to the media outlets. The Council should review the regulations and create a representative public council that would make decisions and formulate proposals for transparently distributing the public money accumulated in the fund.” A number of broadcasters contacted by Info-Prim Neo disputed the size of the new tax, which they consider exaggerated, as well as its legality. The director general of TV7 channel, Anatol Golea said that even if stipulated in the Broadcasting Code, the tax is not regulated by the budget law and is therefore half-legal. He also said that what radio and TV stations will be allocated resources to develop from the money that his institution transferred to the broadcaster support fund remains a mystery. “The way in which the resources of the fund will be distributed is very non-transparent. There are proposals that this money should be allocated first of all to local broadcasters. No one knows yet how the beneficiaries will be selected,” the cited source said. By now, the fund has accumulated the first million lei. The BCC vice president Valeriu Frumusachi said that the broadcasting authority is yet to decide how to distribute the funds. He specified that the Council will hold an internal meeting to debate this subject. “I would propose that the funds are distributed by contests organized both for national and local stations,” the vice president of the BCC said. Under the regulations, the resources from the fund are allocated according to the BCC’s decision, but these funds cannot be used to remunerate the members of the Council and its employees. The APEL study was carried out as part of a broader project aimed at monitoring the way in which the authorities implement the Broadcasting Code that came into force at the end of 2006.