Parliamentary sittings could be broadcast live

The Supervisory Board (SB) of the national public broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova (TRM) decided to return to the issue of live broadcasting of the Parliament’s sittings by the public TV channel Moldova 1 at its next meeting, Info-Prim Neo reports. At Friday’s meeting, a number of members of the Board said that the parliamentary sittings should be broadcast live as they are of interest to the society. The SB member Boris Focsa said that the live broadcasting allows the viewers to form their own opinion, instead of consuming information imposed by a media outlet. “Now, the media organizations broadcast only the parts of the sittings that they want and that suit them. I do not agree with the news reports of Moldova 1 and with what they transmit from the Parliament’s sittings as the information is truncated and the professional ethics are not respected. The people ask why the public television does not tell the truth. Moldova 1 loses its credibility. The live broadcasting implies large costs, but Moldova 1’s journalists do not observe the code of ethics,” he said. Tudor Tataru, another member of the Board, said that the viewers must be allowed to form their own opinions about who is wrong and who is right, as in the case of football matches. The SB secretary Anatol Dubrovschi said that they need money to broadcast live the parliamentary sittings. “At the next meeting, we should examine this issue in detail and see where we can take money from. It is true that the people must see the circus taking place in the Parliament with their own eyes, but this circus costs money. At the beginning, we can broadcast only the most interesting sittings, for example when the head of state will be elected,” he said. For his part, the TRM president Valentin Todercan said that Moldova 1 is not biased as other media outlets. “The sittings of the European Parliament and the Council of Europe are broadcast live over the Internet by the media institutions of the EP and CE. “We cannot come with a computer and a video camera and broadcast live as many national media organizations do. We come with a mobile truck that weighs 25 tonnes, which consumes a lot of electrical power and is operated by 25 persons. Certainly, the most important sittings will be broadcast with money from the company’s budget. But we must know at least the date of the sittings so as to schedule the broadcasting and modify the program,” Valentin Todercan said. The SB chairwoman Mariana Slapac asked the TRM president to draw up an expenditure estimate for broadcasting live the parliamentary sittings and submit it to the Board for consideration within 3-4 days. Recently, the administration of the public broadcaster refused to comply with the legislative body’s decision to resume the live broadcasting of the sittings and to present a report in the Parliament. The Broadcasting Coordination Council recommended the Supervisory Board and Teleradio-Moldova to ensure the live broadcasting of the Parliament’s sittings.