Gagauz Parliament head assures it was legal to dismiss local public broadcaster's board

The president of the Gagauz People's Assembly, Ana Harlamenko, says the local legislature's decision to dissolve the Observers Council of Teleradio-Gagauzia was legal, Info-Prim Neo reports. Ana Harlamenko told a news conference in Chisinau on Monday that the Law on radio and television of the Gagauz autonomy does not stipulate the procedure of dissolving the Observers Council, as the People's Assembly had the right to liquidate the council as its founder, in conformity with the labor law. “The MPs decided that the OC, in its present structure, is not able to organize and to monitor the work of the public broadcaster,” Ana Harlamenko said. According to her, the MPs did nothing but to annul the former decision of the Assembly concerning the constitution of the OC, which, in their opinion, was created admitting deviations from the law. “According to the law, the OC should have a diversified structure, yet 7 of the 9 OC members are teachers, 5 of them working at the Comrat university, the rector of which is also the OC's chairman, Mihail Daradur”. The Gagauz speaker says they announced the contest to appoint a new OC. Ana Harlamenko says the PA's decision has no political connotation and is not aimed that the Comrat legislature takes the control over the regional public radio and TV company. Harlamenko says the legislature has never interfered with the company's work. Moreover, the speaker accuses the parliamentarians are denied the access to be on air and the legal right to get information from the company. Earlier, the OC's chairman, Mihail Daradur, had told a news conference he would sue the Gagauz parliament's decision, unless the legislature annulled it. According to Daradur, the dissolving decision is illegal, as the law does not allow for reforming the institution on basis of ungrounded reasons. Mihail Daradur thinks Ana Harlamenko, who has worked for 10 years as Teleradio-Gagauzia's president, pursues to take under her control the regional public broadcaster. The decision to dismiss the OC was adopted by the parliament for the second time on 2 September, as only the Communist MPs voted against. Some MPs reasoned the dismissal by alleging the OC members established unreasonably high salaries for Teleradio-Gagauzia's management and the OC's secretary. The Observers Council has not reasoned why it asked for 4.5 million lei for 2009 and makes no effort to generate incomes. It allegedly has not explained the expenditures incurred in 2008 and has not developed the broadcaster's editorial policy. The MPs accuse the lack of attitude of the OC toward Teleradio-Gagauzia's employees allegedly breeching professional standards and not observing pluralism in the news.