TRM and ex-governmental media keep serving government’s interests – independent experts

Independent experts say that despite the formal restructuring of the state company “Teleradio-Moldova” (TRM) into a public company and denationalisation of the governmental press, they continue to serve the political interests of the government. These findings are presented in an independent Report on the results of the two-year implementation of the Action Plan Moldova-EU within the European Neighbourhood Policy. According to the authors of the document, the principle of media denationalisation was used to transfer municipal broadcasters (“Euro TV Chisinau” and “Antena C”) to the structures allied with the government, in this way being violated the spirit of the law, not the letter of the new Audiovisual Code, passed by the ruling majority. While politically manipulated, the legal regulations can not settle the problems of the society, showing lack of real political will and authenticity in what concerns alignment with democratic values, the experts say. The report reveals that this situation is also reflected at local level, where many regional newspapers are published with public money, the funds being provided in a non-transparent manner, fact which covers in a unilateral way the informational needs of the political majority. Taking into consideration the importance of media in the transition period, the European Commission could identify efficient instruments for the evaluation of the public quality of TRM in what concerns correctitude, as well as of other media institutions as regards serving unilateral political interests, the authors of the study affirm. At the same time, the EC could provide stimulants to TRM by means of financial, institutional and direct expertise assistance in order to ensure a modern management, selecting the editorial policies and journalists on the basis of professionalism, correctitude, political independence, and the Supervisory Board should take upon a more active role to fulfil the aforementioned goals. According to the same source, the cases when the opposition press is harassed must not be ignored, including in what concerns the involvement in endless legal proceedings. In order to strengthen the capacity of independent press, a financial assistance programme would be necessary. Also, it is necessary to ensure full implementation of the recommendations worked out by the international bodies in 2004, such as OSCE and the Council of Europe, as well as of the international and national media bodies. According to the report, it is necessary to work out antitrust regulations in the media field to hinder the creation of media congeries around the political forces or big companies. Guaranteeing media pluralism is important for a democratic society, and the Commission, with the assistance of experts, could work out media pluralism standards which would be applied in Moldova. The Report was drawn up by the representatives of 13 NGOs, within the framework for cooperation and consultations “Euroforum”, created within the European Initiatives Programme of Soros-Moldova Foundation.