Parliament responses to foreign embassies’ concerns over freedom of media by proposing a bill that would further restrict access to information

Not later than a week after the Embassies and international organisation accredited in Chisinau expressed concern over the freedom of media in Moldova, Parliament has brought into discussion a bill aimed at disrupting live transmissions on national TV and radio stations of the Parliament sittings, this way restricting the right of the society to fair information. The draft law, signed by the Communist MP Victor Stepaniuc, and Christian-democrat MPs Iurie Rosca and Stefan Secareanu, intends to amend the art. 82 of the Parliament Regulations, according to which plenary sittings are broadcasted live. The initiative signed on Monday was urgently examined by the specialised parliamentary committees and on Monday, March 22 it was decided to examine it at the Friday sitting. [What troubles foreigners] In a joint statement issued on Thursday, March 15 the embassies and international organisations accredited in Chisinau expressed their concern about the trends related to the freedom of media in Moldova recalling the commitment undertaken by Moldova under the EU–Moldova Action Plan and other international agreements including the call to the unrestricted flow of information enshrined in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to develop a truly vibrant and free media. The signatories call on Moldova to adhere fully to its obligations to the OSCE, EU and Council of Europe as well as other international commitments and on all bodies concerned to implement fully international standards on media freedom, so that the Moldovan people receive the free and unfettered the views of all sides in the election campaign. [Full “green light” for the initiative] On March 19, a few days after the statement was issued, three MPs signed a legislative initiative. It requests to amend article 82 of the Parliament Regulations, which is planned to be changed as follows: “The sittings of the Parliament … can be broadcasted live on the national public TV and radio stations according to the Broadcasting Code, or at the request of the Parliament, by simple majority of votes. The records of the public sittings are placed on the official webpage of the Parliament. Official press-releases about the sittings of the Parliament are published only by the Press Service of the Parliament”. The authors justified their initiative by the need to save public money and by the insignificant popularity of the transmissions. On March 21, the draft law was already examined in the Committee, and on March 22 this item was introduced in the agenda of Friday’s sitting. On Thursday, several MPs, including Veaceslav Untila, Leonid Bujor, and Dumitru Braghis asked the Parliament to postpone the debates related to the amendment, setting forth the illegality of the law. According to the MPs, the amendments address the recent version of the Parliament Regulations, which hasn’t been published yet in “The Official Monitor”. The majority composed of communists and Christian-democrats rejected the proposal of the aforementioned MPs. [A “bad” idea, linked to elections] Political analyst Mihai Godea, director of “Contact” Centre told Info-Prim Neo that this legislative initiative is “bad”. It buries the “10 conditions” proposed by the opposition for voting the head of state. According to Godea, the live transmission of the sittings enabled the citizens to learn more about the activity of MPs, to watch the uncensored activity of the Parliament. The initiative, clearly electoral, imperils the transparency of Parliament’s activity, violates the right of the population to information, and the ruling coalition tries to retouch its image by means of this law. [Obviously a politically motivated decision] Economic analyst Veaceslav Ionita, member of the Supervisory Board of “Teleradio-Moldova” Company (TRM), refutes the argument of the authorities about the fact that the transmissions are too expensive for the State Budget. Ionita says that TRM has a budget of MDL 60 mln for 2007. This sum includes the broadcasting of programmes of public concern. Regarding “the insignificant popularity” of the transmissions invoked by the authors, Ionita says that this is a wrong judgment, because no one conducted popularity surveys. The expert says this is clearly a politically motivated decision. By cancelling the transmissions, the opposition is deprived of the right to be heard. “It is a disgraceful decision of the ruling coalition”, Veaceslav Ionita concluded. [One step closer to the full cancellation of transmissions] Spokesman of “Moldova Noastra” Alliance Victor Osipov says that the only right obtained by the citizens in 2005 – to watch the live transmission of the sittings – is transformed into a whim of the communist – Christian-democrat parliamentary majority, which will censor the programmes as they wish. The broadcast of the sitting was the only decision which was not copying the commitments taken upon through the Action Plan Moldova-EU, and the only one fulfilled. After the cancellation of the transmission, the Christian-democrat MPs tread under foot the only achievement of the deal by means of which they sold to the communist leader the option of the Christian-democrat voters, the cited source says. According to Osipov, “this initiative confirms the strategy of the present coalition, namely the elimination of the right to the freedom of expression, access to information and expanded political control over public information”, after passing an imperfect Broadcasting Code and privatising two municipal stations, transforming “Moldova Suverana” and “Nezavisimaia Moldova” into obedient newspapers, which directly serve the interests of the coalition. “It was the only way by means of which the population could see the parliamentary debates, hear a different standpoint. No public debates programmes are broadcasted at the stations of Moldova and almost a half of the news on TVM are dedicated to the government, without offering the civil society the right to express a viewpoint on the activity of the government”, the cited source says. According to him, the process of passing a decision is difficult, includes certain procedures. In case the decision will be made ad-hoc, the TV stations should immediately rally their efforts. Osipov considers that such an initiative shows lack of professionalism. [Red-orange coalition now official] Journalist Constantin Tanase says that by signing the legislative initiative, the two leaders of the People’s Christian Democrat Party and one of the Communist Party, have made the ruling coalition official. The statements about the so-called political partnership look hilarious. According to the director of “Timpul de dimineata” daily, this initiative is politically motivated and against the opposition, without having nothing in coming with reasons set forth in the informative note of the authors of the amendment. “By means of this initiative the only and the last contact source between the political majority and society is being closed. The argument that the majority of MPs can decide whether the sittings will be transmitted at the radio is perfidious, because we all now who represents the majority – communist and Christian-democrat MPs”, the journalist says, emphasising the fact that promoting such a draft law on the eve of the electoral campaign shows that the parliamentary majority is annoyed by the statements of the opposition. [It is already known which sittings will be broadcasted] Chairman of the Electronic Press Association (APEL) Alexandru Dorogan says that the authors of the initiatives already decided when they will broadcast the sittings of the Parliament, because the initiative says that that decision will be made by the parliamentary majority, which is represented by the authors of the amendment. Dorogan says that the initiative is not grounded on reasonable arguments, but only on the interest of the authors. “If we accept the idea that TRM is a public institution and represents the interests of the public, I consider this amendment opposes the interest of the public, violating the constitutional right to information, the right to know first hand”, the cited source says, emphasising that in this way the MPs will hide from the public, so that the citizens do not see how they sleep in the Parliament and do nothing at all. [No one believes anymore that communists fulfilled the 10 conditions of the People’s Christian Democrat Party] Chairman of the Independent Press Association (IPA) Petru Macovei told Info-Prim Neo that no one believed that the ruling party had plans to fulfil the 10 conditions presented by PCDP when it accepted the “political deal” on April 4. One of this conditions, almost unique, was the live transmission of the sittings, and their cancellation, at the initiative of the political partners, will deprive the citizens of a public source of information, and the parliamentary opposition – of the possibility to be heard, as they do not have access to the so-called public stations, which praise the government. Referring to the 10 conditions, Macovei said that the great majority of them were not fulfilled, and nothing has changed, the press was rather throttled than denationalised. [Short story of the cancellation] TV “Moldova 1” started to broadcast the sittings of the Parliament on May 12, 2005. At the first live transmission, leader of the communist faction Eugenia Ostapciuc asked the Parliament to cancel them, because “for each transmission MDL 33 thousand are being spent”. At the end of the last year, the communist faction insisted on the cancellation of the live transmissions, because it considered them “inefficient”. The Communist faction proposed the creation of TV and radio summaries, which would cover the parliamentary activity. Back then, PCDP disputed this initiative, saying that “the live transmissions are the political agreement between the government party and opposition”. Suddenly, PCDP changed its mind, coming with two signatures in favour of this initiative against one signature on behalf of the communists.