President Vladimir Voronin promulgated the Audiovisual Code

President of the Republic of Moldova, Vladimir Voronin has promulgated the Audiovisual Code, approved by the Parliament on July 27, 2006, the Press Service of the presidency announced. According to a press release, the Audiovisual Code aims at protecting the rights of the consumers and instituting democratic principles in the area of Audiovisual in Moldova, as well as protecting laws and constitutional freedoms, broadcasting and rebroadcasting services, control of society over the audiovisual. At the same time, the Code settles the activity of public audiovisual institutions, editorial independence, free access to broadcasted information, protecting the rights of consumers, protecting language and national cultural patrimony and national informational space. At the same time, the political analyst Igor Botan stated this week that freedom of press in Moldova is one of the most concerning issues for the international community, as well as for the national public opinion. According to him, several media institutions expressed their concern and made proposal in order to improve the Audiovisual Code. Its approval generated intense parliamentary and extraparliamentary debates. The experts said that its drafting was a “political compromise between the main political forces of the Parliament”. A memorandum signed by 8 public associations says that “the civil society was not involved in the process of drafting the Audiovisual Code” and that this process was not transparent. More, the quoted source says that the document was criticized by the Audiovisual Coordinating Council, Council of Europe, OSCE, Journalists’ Union of Moldova, and the Center for Human Rights of Moldova and several NGOs. In May, the diplomatic missions and the representatives of several international organizations accredited in Chisinau signed a document where they remind that Moldova took upon itself the engagement to ensure freedom of press. The signers regret that despite the declarations made by the authorities of Moldova the ascertained progress in the area of press reforming was insignificant. The lack of progress in transforming “Teleradio-Moldova” into an independent public institution, access to information and disloyal competition with the press directly of indirectly supported by authorities, adopting laws on audiovisual without public debating is concerning the foreign experts. According to the recent report of “Freedom House”, press freedom in Moldova is still degrading. Moldova is included in the category of countries were press is not free, ranked the 146th.