Broadcasting field of Moldova headlines Moldovan newspapers and start to concern Washington

One of the “hot” topics of this week was the decision of the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) to reject the prolongation of the license held by the Balti-based “FM 103.5” radio station and the concern expressed by the Washington regarding the media situation in Moldova. [Washington is concerned about the media situation in Moldova] The “Monitor-media” Agency, Pro-TV Chisinau, BBC, Europa Libera (Radio Free Europe), Info-Prim Neo News Agency reported the case of the “FM 103.5” station and the critics voiced by Colleen Graffy, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, regarding the situation of media in Moldova on the whole and regarding the events at FM-103.5, Antena C and Euro TV Chisinau particularly. The American official, who pays an unofficial visit to Moldova, said that the actions undertaken against these stations are concerning and show that such events become a negative trend in the media field of Moldova. According to Graffy, BCC has showed “lack of transparency” in these three cases. “We believe this is a serious challenge for the freedom of the media and for the diversity of opinions and ideas the public should have access to”, Graffy said. Graffy considers that the freedom of media in Moldova is endangered, but the authorities of Moldova have signed the “Millennium Challenge” Program financed by USA, thus the Moldovan authorities must fight corruption, this thing being impossible to carry out without independent and strong media. “You need a strong and free media to fight and prevent corruption, and we are worried about the possible violations of media’s freedom”, Colleen Graffy emphasised. He urged the Government of Moldova “to examine the decision of the BCC and to ensure it is correct and transparent enforcement”. She said that the development of free, independent and pluralist media is vital for a functional democracy and for the goal of European integration. Colleen Graffy has personally met in Balti the co-founder of Blue Star Company, which owns FM-103.5, Sergiu Cebotari and with the staff of the station in order to find out the reasons for which BCC refused to prolong the broadcasting license. “It seems that BCC’s decision to refuse granting the license lacks transparency, therefore it is a regress”, Colleen Graffy stated. The USA also wants more explanations from authorities and BCC on this decision. According to the Broadcast Code, the radio station should have been first announced and afterwards sanctioned and punished, Colleen Graffy mentioned. On the other hand, other three radio stations from Balti transmit programmes in Russian. The statement was made by the USA official in the context of the BCC’s pretensions on the violation by the Balti-based station of the volume of programmes transmitted in the official language. [Balti-based radio station accuses BCC of political bias] FM 103.5 is the first private radio station in the north of Moldova and municipality of Balti, being founded in 1994 by Sergiu Cebotari and has a broadcasting area of 60 kilometres. Radio FM 103.5 is the only station in Balti which has own programmes and during its activity was never warned or sanctioned by BCC. On February 13, after 12 hours of monitoring, the Council refused to prolong the license of the station, justifying by the fact it “does not respect the broadcasting schedule” and the proportion of programmes in Romanian and Russian. BCC offered the frequency of the station to “City FM”. Sergiu Cebotari considers that the decision of the Council is unjustified and lacks clear arguments. “We are absolutely convinced that BCC had no reason to refuse the prolongation of the broadcasting license and we are puzzled by the fact that all the nine members of the Council voted in favour of a new broadcaster, which is not know and has no experience”, Cebotari says. Director executive of the “Blue Star” Company Valeri Holomeev says that it submitted to BCC all the necessary documents complying with the Broadcast Code, but the Council analysed the old broadcasting schedule and decided to suspend the license. Holomeev says that the decision of BCC in the case of the station, as well as in the case of Antena C and Euro TV Chisinau is illegal and is grounded on reasons related to the close elections. “The Government builds its own media”, the director said. In this context Cebotari affirms that the present composition of BCC promotes a political partiality in the favour of two parties. Although the decision of ACC did not come into force because it was not published in “The Official Monitor of Moldova”, FM 103.5 suspended its broadcasting on Friday at 18.00. It announced the audience and its advertisement customers that it does not agree with the decision of BCC, but it will comply with it. The administration of FM 103.5 says it will sue the decision of the authorities, after it will be published in “The Official Monitor”. [BCC says that any refusal to offer license can be labelled political] BCC comments the critics of the American official through the necessity for “surgeries” in the chaos of the broadcasting field of Moldova. Chairman of the Council Corneliu Mihalache says it is “not a regress”, as the American official says. “In case we’ll become frustrated about statements accusing us of political scenarios, that will be regress”, Mihalache says, specifying that many enemies, opponents and critics appeared since the Council started its work, and this fact proves it works well. According to Mihalache, the license of FM 103.5 was not granted because BCC wants to bring to order the media field, specifying that “this segment of the broadcasting is very sensitive”. Mihalache affirms that radical interventions will be operated further on “because few frequencies are free”. According to him, many violations were found at Blue Star, 60% of the broadcasting schedule was not respected, as well as the share of transmissions in Romanian and Russian. Mihalche says that that City-FM radio station is one hundred percent local. More, its financial situation is more stable compared with Blue Star and the team has the best specialists in Balti. “I consider that I rather grant license to a young and ambitious team than support a station with a deplorable situation”, the chairman of BCC stated. Mihalache denies the accusations related to the “clearing” of the media field for the local elections, saying that “any refuse to offer license can be qualified as a political decision”. He is supported by the head of the Parliamentary Committee for Culture, Education, Science and Media Victor Stepaniuc who said that the way the Broadcasting Code is implemented will be observed within a month and a half, but for the moment there are no reasons to consider that BCC is politically biased. [US Ambassador and Moldovan speaker discussed about the “Millennium Challenges”. Is it accidental?] US Ambassador Michael Kirby met with Speaker of Parliament Marian Lupu on Friday February 16. They discussed about the participation of Moldova in the “Millennium Challenge” Programme. According to the Press Service of the Parliament the collocutors discussed about a series of issues related to the assistance programme and support offered to Moldova by the United States. The parties discussed about the engagements taken upon by Moldova in front of the Council of Europe in what concerns the promotion of democracy and rule of law, the press release says. In September 2000 Moldova signed together with other 191 countries of the world in New York “UN Millennium Statement: human development – first importance goal”. Through this document Moldova joined the commitment of the International Community about the fundamental human values, including the implementation process of the Millennium Challenges – goals which have to be accomplished by 2015.