Civil society warns European Commission over problems faced by mass media in Moldova

Representatives of media nongovernmental organizations discussed issues related to the access to information and the organization of the mass media system in Moldova during a meeting held at the office of the European Commission’s Delegation to Moldova on October 25. The opinions expressed during debates will be also discussed at a meeting of representatives of the European Commission and officials of the Moldovan Government scheduled for October 26. [The Association of Electronic Press (APEL)] informed the European Commission of the fact that the transformation of Teleradio-Moldova Company (TRM) into a public broadcaster is sluggish. TRM does not adequately react to the public opinion, to the join monitoring carried out by 11 NGOs. The news programs do no leave room for pluralism of opinion and the senior officials of the country and representatives of the civil society are not invited to debates during the hours with maximum audience, APEL chairman Alexandru Dorogan told Info-Prim Neo. According to the cited source, the meeting also discussed authorities’ responsibility for implementing the Broadcasting Code. APEL said that the parliamentary commission on mass media should organize debates attended by representatives of the civil society to discuss the way in which TRM is changed into a public institution. At the same time, the Broadcasting Coordination Council should be more responsible in front of the public and present the reports required by the legislation in due time. [The Association of Independent Press (API)] called on the European Commission to encourage the Government to continue with the denationalization at local level. Two national papers – “Moldova Suverană” and “Nezavisimaia Moldova” - were denationalized a year and a half ago and the press founded by district councils should also be denationalized in the near future so as to create equal conditions of activity for the private press, API programme coordinator Dumitru Lazur said. According to Lazur, the state-backed press is now favored by post offices, which want to have more subscribers to them, as well as by other institutions. API recommended adopting a preferential fiscal regime for the printed media. “The papers in Moldova are not a profitable business. Therefore, they should not be taxed in the same way as the commercial organizations,” Dumitru Lazur stated. The executive director of [the Independent Journalism Centre (CIJ)] Corina Cepoi told Info-Prim that another subject discussed was the attitude of Moldova’s Post Office towards the local papers. CIJ considers that the prices for distribution services are exaggerated if taking into account that this institution is a monopolist on the market. Moreover, the Post Office announces increases in the price of the services provided by it before the subscription campaign, when the subscription prices are already fixed and the paper owners cannot make modifications in line with the trade margin set by the distributor. [The Centre “Acces-Info”] warned the European Commission that the draft law on transparency in decision making examined by the Government was not submitted to the Parliament for adoption and it remained forgotten, the Centre’s president Vasile Spinei said. “We consider it a good initiative that can contribute to a better access to information, even when the normative and legislative documents are only drafted,” Spinei said. “Acces-Info” pointed to the inefficient information management, urging the authorities to inform actively not only passively. The press did not have access to the meeting of the mass media NGOs at the European Commission’s Delegation.