Parliament votes controversial draft Audiovisual Code

Audiovisual Code (AC) was voted on Thursday, July 27 in final reading without coming to an agreement between the MPs of all factions and independent ones. The draft AC, proposed by the Parliament for examination in second reading, generated controversial disputes which lasted almost 2 hours. The draft had about 170 amendments, some of them being intensely debated by the MPs. The most important changes regarding the draft approved in first reading are those referring to appointing and functioning of the Audiovisual Coordinating Council (ACC), the activity of the Observers Council of “Tele Radio Moldova” (TRM) Council and transforming the local public broadcasters into bureaus under TRM. In this way, according to the Code, the members of the ACC will be appointed by the Parliament with the of 3/5 of the MPs, at the proposal of the specialized commission, being promoted by the public associations, trade union associations, patronages and religious organizations. The members of ACC will be appointed for a period of 6 years, but the commission will be renewed at intervals: initially 3 candidates will be chosen for a term of 6 years, 3 – for 4 years and other 3 – for 2 years. The majority of MPs rejected the proposal of the MP, Valeriu Cosarciuc, namely voting 5 members by the parliament and another 4 – by the most representative civil society. Victor Stepaniuc, the head of the specialized commission declared that it is hard to establish the most representative civil society. In this context the MP Anatol Onceanu expressed his concern regarding the fact that the members of ACC will be selected by the public organizations obedient to the government. The Code, compared with the initial draft, stipulates the activity of a Council of Observers of TRM, which will include 9 persons, proposed by ACC and approved by the Parliament. Several MPs pleaded in favor of voting the members of the Council in the same way as the members of ACC are voted, but this proposal was also rejected. The stipulation which says that in the place of present local public broadcasting institutions territorial TRM bureaus will be instituted, which will broadcast during 2 up to 6 hours every day and the rest of time being used for re-broadcasting the programs of the national radio and TV stations also generated controversial discussions. The MPs of Moldova Noastra Alliance (MNA) and the independent MPs opposed to these amendments, proposing keeping the present statute of these institutions, but their proposals were rejected. The independent MP Valentin Cusnir proposed to postpone the voting procedure, offering to the civil society the chance to analyze the amendments and then present their opinions. The representative of the communists’ faction, Vadim Misin declared that the amendments stipulating that the members of the Audiovisual Coordinating Council shall be approved by the Parliament with the votes of at least 3/5 of the total number of MPs violates the Constitution, which provides that such kind of decisions are approved by the Parliament with the simple majority of MPs. At the end of the debates on this issue, the speaker Marian Lupu announced a pause and meanwhile he organized a joint meeting with the leaders of the factions, MP Vadim Misin and the head of the Committee for Legal Issues, Appointments and Immunities, Vladimir Turcan. After the break, the MPs came back without continuing debates on the draft AC and started hearing the report of the prime-minister Vasile Tarlev. Afterwards, AC was proposed for voting, without being announced the results of the discussions and was adopted with the votes of the communists’, democrat and Christian-democrat factions. The representatives of these factions elaborated the draft AC. They approved the draft in first reading on April 6, 2006. The representatives of other political parties, as well as experts, journalists, at the numerous public debates on this issue, the representatives of the civil society qualified this document as political and which allow interference of the government in the affairs of the local broadcasting institutions.