The Independent Journalism Center proposed amendments to the Broadcasting Code, which are aimed at ensuring transparency as regards ownership of media outlets. The Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) said it formulated similar amendments, IPN reports.
During discussions focusing on the Center’s proposals, jurist Eugeniu Rybka, who is an expert in mass media legislation, said the transparency in broadcasting is a necessity. The two measures proposed by the Center aim to ensure mass media ownership transparency in the licensing process and in the presentation of annual reports.
Eugeniu Rybka said that when somebody will want to obtain or extend a broadcast license, they will have to present information about the owners. The notion of owner is regarded in a broader context and refers not only to the name and surname of the persons registered as founders of limited liability companies formally or less formally.
Jurist Tatiana Puiu said the law should impose a ban on issuing broadcast licenses to broadcasters from offshore zones as transparency of the media organizations will be thus not fully ensured. The people express interest in these broadcasters more than in those working on the republic’s territory.
After a group of Liberal-Democratic MPs put forward amendments regarding mass media ownership transparency to the Broadcasting Code, BCC chairman Marian Pocaznoi stated for IPN that the Council also drafted a bill with such provisions. He also said that they haven’t yet seen the MPs’ bill, but the Council will support it, if necessary, with the required amendments.
