The issuing by the Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) of a broadcast license to a radio station that copied the name of a station that has worked for 12 years is an unprecedented situation on the media market of Moldova. Radio Orhei director Tatiana Djamanov, in a news conference at IPN on July 6, said effort is made to transfer image to the new radio station - Radio Orhei FM - that will parasitize on this name so as to become popular with the public.
Tatiana Djamanov noted that in 2015 the current mayor of Orhei Ilan Shor, who then ran for this post, asked the BCC to penalize the radio station for a broadcast report about the election campaign this conducted. After Ilan Shor won the mayoralty, the journalists of Radio Orhei were subject to constraints by the local public administration as they refused to cooperate unofficially with the mayor’s office. The journalists were banned access to the meetings of the mayor’s office. The limitation of access to information of public interest has been a permanent hindrance.
According to Tatiana Djamanov, a year and a half ago they were forced to leave the areas they rented on the pretext that repair works will be carried out there, but those precincts are now used by employees of Radio Orhei FM. Before the new radio station was opened, a person close to mayor Ilan Shor tried to negotiate the sale of the frequencies used by Radio Orhei. They cannot understand why the BCC took such a decision after the administration of the new radio station proposed two names, but the Council chose and authorized namely this one.
Association of Independent Press executive director Petru Macovei said Radio Orhei during the past two years has been subject to continues harassment because it refused to serve local politicians. Even if the BCC was warned about this situation, about the confusion that can be created by the existence of two stations with almost similar names, the broadcast license was nevertheless issued.
According to Petru Macovei, the authorization of a name that already exists is not a democratic move and runs counter to the good practices and the Broadcasting Code. This stimulates unfair competition. “These things point to a raider attack on a media outlet. The BCC had a formal attitude when it examined the application for the license, basing its decision on the fact that there is no registered trademark. But the radio station has broadcast for 12 years and ignoring this fact means bad intention on the part of the Council,” he noted.
Lawyer Vitalie Zama said the BCC, when adopting the decision, ignored the fact that a radio station with a known name has worked on the market for 12 years. Given the similarity between the names of the radio stations, the BCC created confusion between the two stations and does not encourage free competition as the legislation provides.
According to the lawyer, a lawsuit was filed against the BCC with the demand to nullify the decision of April 5, 2018 by which a broadcast license was issued to Radio Orhei FM. A complaint was also submitted to the Competition Council by which they asked to ascertain the circumstances of unfair competition.
Media nongovernmental organizations announced that they make common cause with the editorial staff of Radio Orhei and requested the Broadcasting Coordination Council to abrogate the April 5, 2018 decision.
