The January 20 extraordinary session of Parliament, convened at the request of the Communist faction, didn’t have a quorum as the MPs of the Pro-European Coalition refused to take part in it, IPN reports.
The legislative body was to pronounce on the situation of the mass media following the exclusion of three channels from the broadcast schedules of TV program distributors at the beginning of this year.
The leader of the Liberal reformers Ion Hadarca, who is the acting chairman of the government coalition, said they must start work with the right foot this year, but the participation in a show staged by the Communists does not mean appropriate work. The three channels were re-included in the broadcast schedules of the distributors and the freedom of the media wasn’t actually underlined. “Not the bellicose Communists should teach us a lesson of democracy. They had kept the media under control for eight years,” he stated.
The chairman of the Democratic Party Marian Lupu told the journalists that it is a joint position of the coalition. He considers that Communists’ acts are at least ridiculous. The Parliament’s competent commission will formulate a set of amendments aimed at avoiding the exclusion of channels from the broadcast schedules of TV program distributors in the future.
Valeriu Strelet, who heads the Liberal-Democratic parliamentary group, said the Communists during eight years took a series of steps aimed against the freedom of the media. “They fired journalists who were unsuitable for them from the public TV channel and denationalized the radio station Antena C and the channel Euro TV. They also closed Info-Prim News Agency. That’s why we subscribe to the coalition’s decision,” he stated.
The sitting was attended by only 41 MPs of 101. As the quorum was not present, the extraordinary session was closed. The Communists left the assembly hall, chanting “Shame”.
The ordinary session of Parliament starts on February 3.
