Teleradio's Observers Council discusses financial independence of public broadcasters

The supervising board of the Teleradio-Moldova public broadcaster – the Observers Council (OC) – wants the public's advice as to the insurance of the financial independence of the public broadcasters. A draft appeal to the Parliament is going to be published on its site, and in case of receiving positive echoes from citizens, it is going to be sent to the Parliament, Info-Prim Neo reports. An OC member, Viorel Cibotaru, expressed Wednesday his dissatisfaction with what he called „the formal report” of Teleradio-Moldova's president, Valentin Todercan. Todercan spoke that the editorial policy of the company is not impelled by any public authority, as the program schedule of the public television and radio is strictly compiled in conformity with the public's preferences. “Judging by the information presented, everything seems OK, regardless of the fact that we can discuss about tens of cases of interferences,” Viorel Cibotaru said. He said he wanted to hear of concrete cases of meddling into the editorial policy of the company, about things the press wrote about, and not a report “based on the legal frame.” In response, Valentin Todercan, said: „The fact that the law does not allow interferences has helped us to reject the interference attempts.” He specified he rejected the attempts of AMN, PD and PPCD (opposition parties – e.n.) to influence the editorial policy of the company. However acknowledged the public broadcaster mirrors the activity of the ruling party, but justified himself by: „when another party or alliance comes to power, we'll have to inform about their activity.” The OC praised the news departments, especially for the way in which the reporters covered the recent floods. Referring to the subject, Viorel Ciubotaru said it was alright, politically, including the coverage of the state institutions' efforts.”