Parliament will have to adopt bill to decide on live broadcast of meetings on radio station Vocea Basarabiei

The problem of live broadcast of the parliamentary meetings on the private radio station Vocea Basarabiei will be solved only after there will be adopted a bill that will interpret the stipulations of the Parliament’s regulations, Speaker Marian Lupu said on October 12. Lupu specified that this issue was discussed at the meeting of the Standing Bureau, but the Bureau is not empowered to make such decisions because this is a matter of law interpretation. Asked if the Standing Bureau discussed the situation at the Broadcasting Coordination Council, Lupu said that if the parliamentarians are interested in this issue, they should submit proposals for the agenda. On March 23, 2007 the Parliament excluded the obligation to broadcast live the plenary meetings imposed on the national public radio and television channels. Later, at the end of July, Vocea Basarabiei expressed its readiness to broadcast live the Parliament’s meetings at its own expense, but no decision on this matter was taken yet. At the end of the previous session, the Communist MPs said that the legislation does not envisage the live transmission by private broadcasters. But the Opposition legislators say that this issue must be considered by taking into account the public character of the Parliament’s meetings. A week ago, Marian Lupu said that he is for the live broadcast of the meetings.