The Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) warned publicly 11 TV channels because they didn’t ensure the sign language interpreting of programs of major importance and of newscast. Under the Broadcasting Code, at least 20 minutes of the daily airtime must be made accessible to persons with hearing impairments by subtitling or interpreting in sign language news items read by the newscaster, IPN reports.
Public warnings were issued against “Moldova 1”, “Prime”, “Canal 3”, “2 Plus”, “N4”,
“Publika TV”, “TV7”, “Jurnal TV”, “TVC21”, “Accent TV”, and “Euro TV”.
The representative of the public TV channel “Moldova 1” said the main news bulletin is not interpreted in sign language because the interpreter is on medical leave and they could not find another person to replace their specialist who will return in September. The BCC asked that until then the newscasts should be subtitled.
The representative of “TVC 21” invoked technical problems in the subtitling of news programs, saying the channel will comply with the requirements from September 1.
Members of the Council informed that the monitoring was performed following a notification from the Nondiscrimination Coalition that received a number of complaints from hearing-impaired persons.
