Media NGOs find that public broadcasters break law

The national and regional public broadcasters "Teleradio-Moldova" and "Teleradio-Gagauzia" covered the elections by deviating from the legal provisions and ethical norms. This is one of the conclusions reached by 10 media and human rights NGOs, which monitor the implementation of the Broadcasting Code, under the aegis of the Electronic Press Association (APEL.) The secretary of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections – Coalition 2009, Nicolae Panfil, APEL president Alexandru Dorogan and executive manager Ion Bunduchi presented monitoring reports on those two stations, on their supervisory boards and on the Broadcasting Coordinating Council at a news conference at Info-Prim Neo, on Thursday, April 30. In the report monitoring the newscasts and programs presenting political actors, from 4 February through 5 April, 2009, the authors find that both public broadcasters displayed a partisan attitude toward certain political actors and, particularly, toward the ruling party and the PCRM representatives. On the one hand, this fact significantly diminished the opportunities of all the contestants to equally and fairly present their electoral offers and, on the other hand, it disabled the voters to get informed to the extent as to be able to assess the quality of the offers, reads a communique drafted by APEL. Through their conduct during the race, the public broadcasters funded from public money were far from serving the public interest. In fact, the public broadcasters polished the image of the governance and denigrated the Communists' opponents, the monitors find. When asked about responses to the monitoring reports, APEL president Alexandru Dorogan has said they got two disagreeing letters from Teleradio-Moldova. The first was signed by its Supervisory Board. “The law reads that the Observers Council (OC) represents no other interest than the public one. Another conclusion of ours is that the OC neglected its role as a representative of the public interest and through its actions it acted as an advocate for the company,” A. Dorogan said. The monitors have found that, during the electoral race, the Broadcasting Coordinating Council did not duly honor its mission as a guarantor of the defense of the public interest in broadcasting on democratic principles, one of its basic attributions – supervising the observance of the law – by permanently monitoring the content of the program services offered by broadcasters, which entails prompt, adequate and public reaction to the found breaches.