Teleradio-Gagauzia Board considers illegal its dismissal by the local parliament

The leadership of the Observers Council of the regional public broadcaster Teleradio-Gagauzia considers illegal its being dismissed by the People's Assembly. The local legislature unanimously decided on July 20 to reform the Observers Council (OC) of Teleradio-Gagauzia and to announce a new contest for the vacations. The last elected president of the People's Assembly, Ana Harlamenko, has told Info-Prim Neo that the OC president, Mihail Daradur, ignored for the second time the legislature's request to present the activity report for 2007. According to Ana Harlamenko, selecting the OC members was done by violating the law, which provides that the institution should have a diversified structure. Most of the OC members are representatives of the Comrat-based University, the rector of which is Mihail Daradur. According to Ana Harlamenko, he used to influence the OC's decisions, because he was their employer. The board's leader, Mihail Daradur, has told Info-Prim Neo the decision to sack the OC is illegal, because the parliament did not have the right to decide so without him. Mihail Daradur says he was then in Turkey. He declines of having ignored to present the report, especially after such a request never came from the Assembly, he says. Mihail Dadur says he could not present the activity report because of the uncertain situation in the parliament. Yet he refused to comment on the accusations of allegedly influencing his colleagues decisions. Also the president of Teleradio-Gagauzia”, Ecaternia Jekova, considers that the Assembly did not have the right to dismiss the board without its president. She hints the legislature had no reason to reform the OC, since “significant progress has been registered by the company lately.” “Teleradio-Gagauzia” was transformed into a public broadcaster on the basis of the law passed by the People's Assembly on July 27, 2007. Media experts and NGOs then signaled out the transformation was accomplished with violations. The most serious they think is the fact that Teleradio-Gagauzia was not liquidated and then transformed into a public broadcaster and the fact that the members of the Observers Council were elected non-transparently and with deviations from the law.