Experts consider that the Draft Audiovisual Code is not supporting local broadcasters

The draft Audiovisual Code (AC) is not regulating properly the activity of private broadcasters and needs some changes in this respect. The representatives of the civil society and of several private radio and TV stations will propose to the Parliament some amendments of AC, which according to them will abet the development of Audiovisual in the Republic of Moldova and especially of the local productions. On Tuesday, May 30, the national conference “Draft AC: expertise and contributions of the civil society” ended with a series of debates regarding the draft Code. On the last day of the conference, the participants formulated and examined modification proposals referring the activity of the private broadcasters. The stipulation which interdicts to foreign natural and artificial persons to own a share which allows making decisions, when founding a broadcaster roused some questions. Angela Arama, People’s Christian Democratic Party MP, one of the authors of the draft, said that this stipulation was included in order to diminish the danger of the Russian influence in Audiovisual. On the other hand, Victor Osipov, councilor of the “Moldova Noastra” Alliance faction, declared that this stipulation breaks the stipulations of the Moldova-EU action plan, which says about the openness of the Moldovan market for European investors. In this context, this stipulation must be excluded, at least for the EU institutions, said Osipov. At the same time, Valeriu Saharneanu, the president of the Journalists’ Union, declared that in the conditions when Moldovan broadcasters are weak, introducing such a stipulation means to halt the development of this area. Several experts declared for the necessity of some stipulations that would interdict to the re-broadcasted foreign channels to make publicity in the Republic of Moldova, At present, the big companies broadcast their publicity on channels like TVR or ORT, in this way the local channels do not have the possibility to earn money. The participants formulated a series of other changes and completions, which will be structured and sent for examination to the specialized Parliamentary Commission. The proposals of the civil society will be made public on the site of the Public Policy Institute (PPI). The national conference is the result of 5 public debates, which took place during April-May 2006 in Chisinau. At the public debates participated the Association of Electronic Press, the Independent Journalism Center, the “Acces-Info” Center, the Association of Independent Journalists, the Organization “the Jurists for Human Rights”, experts Constantin Marin, Constantin Partac, politicians, jurists etc. The event was organized by the Public Policy Institute with the support of the Swedish Agency for Development and International Cooperation and of the Soros-Moldova Foundation.