Parliament rejected the report on the Audiovisual Council’s work in 2020 by the votes of the PAS MPs. The members of the Council were this way dismissed. The report of the responsible parliamentary commission says the Audiovisual Council didn’t ensure the observance of such principles as impartiality, balance and favoring of the free formation of opinions in programs, primarily during election campaigns, by media service providers, IPN reports.
Asked by MP about the violations committed by many providers during the election campaign, the Council’s chair Ala Ursu-Antoci said a series of TV channels were penalized. Fake news is distributed primarily online, but this sector is not regulated.
BCS MP Corneliu Furculiță said the questions put to Ala Ursu-Antoci look like revenge taking as she earlier headed the executive of the parliamentary group of the Party of Socialists.
Speaker Igor Grosu said that institutions with such a performance are not needed. The monitoring performed by the Council was ineffective as damage was already done and the radio and TV stations continued disseminating lies.
The Audiovisual Council adopted inequitable decisions following petitions and complaints, many of which were rejected. As a result of inspections, particular providers were only warned publicly, but should have been punished harsher, in accordance with the Code of Audiovisual Media Services, said the head of the Parliament’s commission on education, culture, sport and the media Liliana Nicolaescu-Onofrei.
The report was rejected by the votes of 55 PAS MPs. The BCS MPs voted against, while the MPs of Șor Party abstained.
