Media NGOs ask Broadcasting Council to reconsider licentious language used in “Stories with Masks” show

Media non-governmental organizations issued a joint statement calling on the members of the Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) to objectively exert their functions, in strict accordance with the Broadcasting Code, making abstraction of personal ideological or political preferences. The signatory organizations ask the broadcasting regulator to come back to the consideration of the issue of the licentious language used in a show called “Stories with Masks” (Povesti cu masti), aired by the private television channel NIT, and to take an attitude as to this case, Info-Prim Neo reports. The signatory organizations remind that, in accordance with the provisions of the Broadcasting Code, it is forbidden to broadcast programs containing pornography, exaggerated violence or licentious language. The BCC is obliged to investigate, within 15 days since notified, the lodged applications and complaints. The control is done upon the request of a public authority following the complaint submitted by a natural or legal entity directly affected or by violating the legal norms in force. The attitude of the BCC members is defiant as Gheorghe Gorincioi, the president of the Council, recognized that the regulating authority received many notifications from citizens as to the obscene language used in the show “Stories with masks” and promised those notifications would be examined at the public meeting on April 8, 2008. However, after several postponements, at the meeting of 17 April, 5 out of 8 BCC members refused to discuss the matter. Among the ones that voted against was also the BCC president, Gheorghe Gorincioi, reads the common declaration of the media NGOs. The declaration is signed by the Independent Journalism Center, the Independent Press Association, the Electronic Press Association, the Press Freedom Committee and the Investigative Journalism Center. A notification on the use of licentious language in the program “Stories with masks” was issued by the Parliament’s Standing Bureau on April 1, 2008.