Retransmission of TVR1 channel in Moldova could be halted

The Romanian television channel TVR1 has not paid for the services provided by the state-run enterprise “Radiocommunications” since 15 June 2007, the head of the Ministry of Information Development’s Telecommunications and Radio Communications Division Andrei Nemteanu said at Tuesday’s meeting of the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC). He said that for this reason “Radiocommunications” every day sustains losses of 25,000 lei for retransmitting the channel. The BCC decided to redistribute by contest the state TV network No.2 through which TVR1 is broadcast. The contest will open after the BCC’s decision is published in The Official Gazette of Moldova and will last for a period of 30 days. The Council will fix the date of the contest within 20 days of the expiration of the deadline for submitting offers. The retransmission of TVR1 in Moldova was halted in August 2002 for about seven months, through invoked technical and legal reasons. The civil society protested against the halt, saying the decision had political motives.