Vocea Basarabiei is willing to broadcast Parliament sittings

“Vocea Basarabiei” radio station (VB) announced its availability to broadcast live the plenary sittings of the Parliament starting the autumn-winter session 2007. The founders of the station told a news conference on Tuesday, July 24 that they already informed the Parliament and wait for the decision of the Standing Bureau. According to station’s director Veaceslav Tabuleac, the project will not require tremendous expenses, as claimed by Radio Moldova when it stopped the transmissions from the Parliament. “At present we do not know what price the Parliament will ask for the rent of the space where we will install our equipment, but it should not be a large sum, as we will need only one square metre and want to inform the citizens. The rest are expenses for the maintenance of the frequency and consumption of power, that is about MDL 200 per month”, Tabuleac said, specifying that the radio station “will take upon itself the expenses as well as the broadcasting costs to the benefit of consumers. “I do not believe that the large expenses were the real reason behind Radio Moldova’s disruption of live transmissions from the Parliament. It was for political reasons”, Valeriu Saharneanu, one of the founders of “Vocea Basarabiei” considers. “Vocea Basarabiei” has at present 7 operational frequencies. During 7 years of activity, the Broadcasting Coordination Council rejected over 70 applications for frequencies. At present the radio station competes for 7 frequencies included in the contest, which will take place most probably in September 2007 (in Proteagailovca – 101.1 MHz, Comrat – 101.6 MHz, Bender – 104.0 MHz, Chisinau – 105.2 MHz, Balti – 92.0 MHz, and Causeni – 91.9 MHz). The founders of the station consider as unjustified the insinuations by BCC President Corneliu Mihalache that “Vocea Basarabiei” has put pressure on the Council in order to receive the frequencies, specifying that there was a single statement in support submitted and signed by several political parties and representatives of the civil society.