Group of municipal councillors questions legality of municipal media buyout

A group of municipal councillors disputes the legality of selling the entire holdings of “Antena C” and “Euro TV” municipal stations. Thirteen councillors intend to petition the contentious administrative court in order to verify the legality of the Chisinau Council’s (CMC) decision of January 22, Info-Prim Neo reports. Councillor of the Social Action Bloc (SAB) Mihai Roscovan has read the petition at Friday’s CMC session, emphasising that the decision of January 22 was absolutely illegal. Earlier, an interpellation was submitted to Administrative Control Division, but no response came so far, even if all the legal terms expired. Therefore, the respective group decided to resort to the contentious administrative court. According to SAB councillor, CMC has not only sold the municipal stations, but also public property holdings. These assets, according to the legislation, cannot be sold, but only given for temporary use, says Roscovan. He also doubted the legality of including the stations in the privatisation process, of the list of sold items, and the accuracy of pricing the assets. CMC decided on January 22 to auction off “Antena C” and “Euro TV Chisinau”. The radio station was sold to Dumitru Liuticov for 1.05 mln lei, with the clause to invest 3 mln within 3 years and to pay off the station’s debts. Igor Boldureanu became the owner of “Euro TV” for 2 mln lei, with an investment clause worth 25.5 mln.