Conflict between BCC and “Silver Rain” station is groundless, media experts

The conflict between the radio station “Ploaia de Argint” SRL (“Silver Rain”) and the Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) is unfounded and is inflated by the broadcaster. At the same time, the BCC's decision not to allow the station to broadcast is rash and inappropriate, consider national media NGOs, Info-Prim Neo reports. “The station's broadcast license expired in April 2009, while the conflict between it and the broadcasting regulator arose when the first asked the BCC to renew the license though it has been punished for violating the broadcasting legislation and broadcasting conditions several times,” the NGOs say in a statement. The statement also says that when the BCC rejected the radio station's application to extend the broadcast license, its frequencies were put up for contest, in accordance with the legislation in force. But the broadcaster refused to take part in that contest. “We consider that the radio station wanted to groundlessly cause a conflict as it submitted earlier several applications to the BCC, asking in one of them that it be issued with a new broadcast license for a seven-year period during one working day,” the mass media experts say. On the other hand, the signatory NGOs consider that the BCC's decision not to renew the license of the radio station is inappropriate as the Court of Appeals ordered that the Council withdraw the frequencies used by the broadcaster from the contest until the court passes judgment in this case. “We consider that the BCC, as a guarantor of the public interests, should not deprive the listeners of the radio station “Silver Rain” of access to information as the court did not pass a final decision. We urge the BCC to identify other solutions to solve the conflict and take measures to ensure pluralism and diversity in Moldova's broadcasting sector,” the statement reads. On January 19, the BCC decided to withdraw the radio and TV sequences used by “Silver Rain” from the contest in accordance with the Chisinau Court of Appeals' decision. At the same time, the Council decided to halt the broadcasting of the radio station after allowing it on October 26, 2009 to work until it obtained a new broadcast license. The statement was signed by the Independent Journalism Center, the Independent Press Association, the Association of Electronic Press of Moldova, Acces-Info Center and the Investigative Journalism Center.