Live broadcasting of parliamentary sittings does not involve large costs, MP

“The fact that the public TV channel served devotedly the ruling party during many years is a certain and proved fact. It is illegal for a public company funded from taxpayers’ money to act like this” the Democratic MP Valeriu Guma has told Info-Prim Neo. Guma said that the national public broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova (TRM) broke the law when it refused to broadcast live the Parliament’’s sitting of September 2, ignoring the request of the members of the Alliance for European Integration (AEI). According to Guma, the refusal of the presidents of Teleradio Moldova, the Supervisory Board and the Broadcasting Coordination Council to come to the same sitting and present reports, at the request of the parliamentary majority, was also a violation. “The Parliament’s meetings had been earlier broadcast live for two years. They were welcome as the people knew everything that was happening in the legislative body,” Guma said. “Before the local elections, the broadcasting was suspended and the population was impudently deprived of a reliable source of information.”. The MP said that in the neighboring countries, Romania and Ukraine, the live broadcasting of the parliamentary sittings is an ordinary thing. “We came to the Parliament to offer our people the possibility of being better informed and involved,” he said. In a statement issued earlier this week, the administration of the TRM said that the implementation of such a decision requires the modification of the company’s activity plan and the broadcast schedule, which are approved annually by the Supervisory Board and the Broadcasting Coordination Council. It also said that they will not be able to cover the costs incurred. “For these reasons, the national broadcaster suspended the live broadcasting of the Parliament’s meetings three years ago,” the statement says. Valeriu Guma said that he does not think that the live broadcasting involves large costs. ’”I think that the TRM could find internal resources to satisfy the Parliament’s demand and to observe the law. Some of the money could be allocated from the state budget,” the MP said. In the mentioned statement, the public broadcaster says that the Parliament’s demand is a constraint and violent interference in its editorial policy.