The laws adopted by Parliament as a result of the work done by a working group as part of the EU-CoE Joint Project “Promoting media freedom and pluralism in the Republic of Moldova” do not produce the expected effect. For this to happen, the whole package of eight laws and other required laws should be adopted, Ion Bunduchi, executive director of the Electronic Press Association, stated in the project completion event. The media expert said the method of implementing the already adopted documents should be thought up.
The four laws drafted by the working group that were adopted after being given a final reading are: the Code of Audiovisual Media Services of the Republic of Moldova, the national mass media development conception of the Republic of Moldova, the law on the attraction of foreign investment to the production of films and other audiovisual works, and the information security conception of the Republic of Moldova. After being given a first reading, there were adopted the law on advertising and the bill to amend and supplement a number of laws, including the law on access to information, the law on the freedom of expression and the law on the protection of personal data. Another two bills were only introduced into Parliament.
According to EU Ambassador Peter Michalko, the mass media are one of the poles of the democratic construction. The project “Promoting media freedom and pluralism in the Republic of Moldova” was also designed to improve the editorial policies and to diversify the production of public broadcasters. The project created a training center to contribute to improving the quality and public recognition in society of the public broadcaster and offer assistance in its functioning, purchased equipment and taught the trainers, etc. The diplomat said he would like to see progress in the adoption of the other laws, concerning advertising, financial stimuli and access to information that, together with the already adopted laws, would create a legal framework of a higher quality for the mass media.
Ambassador accredited to the Council of Europe Corina Călugăru said the determination of each player is needed to continue to cooperate and firmly position the media. The areas that weren’t covered by this project, but will be embraced by the future project refer to the fight against hate speech and misinformation.
Broadcasting Coordination Council Dragoș Vicol said the only dissatisfaction related to the project is that the coming into force of the Code of Audiovisual Media Services coincides with the electoral period. Given that the fever of the parliamentary elections will be felt much more intensely in January and that the Council has always been suspected of biased attitude to electoral contenders, Dragoș Vicol asked the European partners to delegate by an expert to work full-time at the Council during the election campaign and to take part in all the election campaign monitoring stages.
The working group for improving the mass media legislation was created with the financial assistance of the Freedom House, Internews and the U.S. Embassy.
