Experts say the Strategy of covering Moldova’s territory with broadcasting services creates favourable conditions for the Reform of Broadcasting Structure

The strategy to cover Moldova’s territory with broadcasting services creates favourable conditions for the Reform of the Broadcasting Structure as a whole, but in order to achieve this objective it is necessary to show consistency and real effort on the part of the Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC), civil society, as well as authorities, Constantin Partac, an expert in the field announced on Monday, April 2, during the public debate on the Strategy. According to him, there is the possibility that throughout the implementation of the strategy conflicts could arise, even protests, and the future of such a strategy rests on the support that the BCC would receive and the potential concessions both parties would have to accept. Although there have already been given over 240 licenses for broadcasting, the common Moldovan citizen remains theoretically uninformed, the major political events and those at a local level aren’t broadcasted enough or politically debated thoroughly, and the cultural patrimony doesn’t find an appropriate response from the so-called National Broadcasters, Partac also added. To some extent even, the Audiovisual in Moldova can be considered protected by a Russian influence, therefore undermining the independence, security and dignity of the state. On the other hand, the Broadcasting field has developed under the influence of political pressures and favours, the expert says. The situation when a TV station has 14 frequencies and did not change its format, list of programmes and the broadcasting volume is abnormal. On the other hand, there are 2 stations which have 100% national production and share a single frequency, Partac added. Corneliu Mihalache, chairman of CCA, stated that when the Audiovisual Code of was adopted, the activity of radio and television was “semi-chaotic”. He emphasized that the development priorities of the audiovisual in Moldova need to include the substantial enhancement of national production, the development of local radio providers, and the stimulation of the latter into diversifying their products. The representative of the Ministry of Informational Development Ion Madan said about the necessity of developing the digital TV, which according to an Agreement signed in Geneva will further replace the analogical TV by 2015. Among the main problems in this respect, Madan mentioned the fact that a considerable part of the existent TV sets will not be able to receive the digital signal, as well as the high costs which will occur during the shift. The strategy on covering the territory of Moldova with broadcasting programme services aims at supporting the democratic process in Moldova by contributing to the efficient guaranteeing of universal right of each citizen to receive and disseminate information, including through broadcasting programmes. Among the objectives of the strategy are to find possibilities to create 6 national networks of frequencies for radio broadcasting and 5 national networks of frequencies for TV broadcasting; protecting the linguistic and national-cultural patrimony; creating for all the citizens the possibility to have access to a minimum diversity of programmes; encouraging the development of the internal market of broadcasting technologies and services; periodically evaluating the advertisement market in Moldova in order to establish fair activity and competition rules for all broadcasters; gradual implementation of digital TV and radio. The document is placed on the webpage of the Council www.cca.md and of the Soros Foundation Moldova, which offered logistic support in working out the document, www.soros.md.