As from May 1, 2008, the Moldova TV channels will be obliged to ensure the gesture translation or synchronous subtitling of news bulletins. The Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) approved of such a decision at its sitting on February 26. The BCC was notified of this problem by the Association of the Deaf from Moldova. The organisation’s chairman Mihail Ursu said that, since 2001, the Association has made numerous appeals to courts asking to improve the access to information of the deaf, but all in vain. Currently, only Moldova 1 uses sign language to translate some of its news broadcasts. The translator is paid by the Association of the Deaf. Also, Channel N4 subtitles one of its news programmes. “The Constitution guarantees equal rights for all the people, but in the given situation the deaf have to pay for the information that is available to the healthy people free of charge,” Ursu said. Anatol Golea, the director of TV7 channel, said that it is practically impossible to translate live the news updates using sign language in the present circumstances. Additional equipment worth at least 10,000 euros is needed and the engineering desk must be changed. If the TV channels are forced to ensure the gesture translation, they could rebroadcast the news bulletins in the morning by translating them using sign language, he said. Alexandru Petcov, the director of N4, proposed paying the translators from the broadcaster support fund. The BCC members accepted the Association’s application and decided that the TV channels that are within Moldova’s jurisdiction will translate by sign language or subtitle at least one news bulletin as from May 1, 2008. The TV channels will translate the most important programmes as a whole or will make a summary. Under the Broadcasting Code, the deaf people’s access to televised programmes of major importance and news bulletins is ensured by translating at least 20 minutes of the programmes broadcast daily using sign language.