Council of Europe states that it sent to the Parliament the expertise of the draft Audiovisual Code, while some MPs deny this fact

The Council of Europe (CoE) states that it has sent long time ago to the authorities from Chisinau the expertise of the draft Audiovisual Code (AC), approved on April 6. An opposition MP states as well that the expertise was sent to the Parliament, but the authors-MPs of the draft Code deny this fact or say they do not know anything about its existence. Solicited by Info-Prim Neo, the Democrat Party MP, Dumitru Ivanov, one of the draft’s authors, declares that he doesn’t know about the fact that the expertise was sent to the Parliament. “I would be very interested in giving it a glance too”, the MP said. Victor Stepaniuc, Communist Party MP, the chairman of the specialized Commission, could not be found. Sources from its anteroom communicated that “the expertise is not in the Parliament”. The head of the Peoples’ Christian Democrat Party parliamentary faction, Vlad Cubreacov said that he does not know if the document has reached the Parliament. On the other hand, the MP of “Moldova Noastra” Alliance, Antol Onceanu announced Info-Prim Neo that he knows from trustful sources about the fact that the expertise is already for a long time in the Parliament. “Probably, it is unfavorable for its authors, so its existence is concealed in order to adopt an appropriate behavior about this situation”. Under these conditions, Info-Prim Neo contacted the Press Unit of CoE and solicited information about the expertise of draft AC. Estelle Steiner, representative of the Press Unit, responsible for the Republic of Moldova, sent the following answer to the Agency: “The Council of Europe expertise on the draft Audiovisual Code was sent to the Moldovan authorities on 29 May, via the Moldovan Permanent Representation to the Council of Europe.” Alexandru Barbov, the head of the Press and Image Service of the Parliament specified for the Agency that the representative of Moldova to CoE is Alexei Tulbure, who previously was recalled, but will continue to carry on this function until a new person will be appointed. The draft Audiovisual Code was elaborated by the Communist, democrat and Christian-Democrat MPs. The representatives of other political parties, as well as experts of the field, journalists, and representatives of the civil society qualified this document, within numerous public debates, as political, which will allow further interference of the government in the activity of the national broadcasters.