Civil society and authorities differ on need to change Broadcasting Code

Representatives of the civil society and of public institutions have different views as to the need to modify the Broadcasting Code. They exposed their opinions Tuesday, March 4, at a theoretical-practical seminar “The Moldovan Broadcasting Code: the opportunity to adjust to international standards,” Info-Prim Neo reports. The president of the APEL Electronic Press Association (APEL,) Alexandru Dorogan, has said the goal of the workshop is to consider the way in which the regulating mechanism, the practical possibilities to guarantee the independence of the regulating authority and to insure the pluralism in the media sector start to function. According to Dorogan, the problem is that the present Broadcasting Code does not offer mechanisms to implement the legal provisions. There lack either the results of some monitoring to show the public the mode in which the Code and the recommendations of the Council of Europe concerning the area are observed. Neither the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC,) nor the civil society so far have possibilities and means to monitor the observance of the legal provisions, he said. According to Alexandru Dorogan, the further adjustment of the national law is impelled because the Broadcasting Code failed to encompass all the European standards and to work out mechanisms for them. The practice of applying the law has brought to daylight contradictions and drawbacks. Thus the area’s development process needs new legal solutions and regulations. Speaking on European standards, Lilia Snegureac, the director of the Information Bureau of the Council of Europe to Moldova, has said those are represented through recommending documents. “Those documents are not compulsory. However, one should not forget that Moldova is still being monitored by the CoE’s Parliamentary Assembly and Committee of Ministers, and all those documents much influence the results of the monitoring,” she underlined. Boyko Boev, a legal expert with the Article XIX international organization, has presented several cases implying broadcasters considered by the Strasbourg Court and has called on lawyers and journalists to follow the international practice and law to better the national legislation. BCC member Vlad Turcanu has opined that the attempts to modify provisions of the Broadcasting Code could lead to opening “Pandora’s box” and the Moldovan broadcasting does not need it. The same position has been shared by MP Angela Arama, a member of the media committee of the Parliament, one of the authors of the Code. She says she sees as outdated the need to return to the discussions before the Code was passed. “There are many objections and there is much room for modifications,” she said. Yet she has shown concern that, if the Parliament is proposed certain changes to the Code, there is a risk that undesirable amendments may be adopted, too. Arama says someone shall not hurry to change, as it is a very complex law and a single change could lead to logical deviations in other chapters. The best thing to do is to talk about the good provisions, “which unfortunately are not taken into account,” she said. A compilation of analyses and recommendations to the Broadcasting Code was recently published, in which national and international experts consider the need of operating changes. The two-day seminar is organized by APEL, the BCC, jointly with the Media Program of the Soros Foundation-Moldova. The seminar is part of the actions undertaken within the Media Program of the Soros Foundation-Moldova with the support of the Swedish Agency for International Development and Cooperation (SIDA), aimed at building the national broadcasting on democratic principles.