The criminal probe started five months ago by the General Prosecutor’s office invoking “appeals to overthrow or change by violence the constitutional regime” in the talk-show “Forum” broadcast by the Vocea Basarabiei radio station remains open. Radio listeners having phoned in are further being heard as witnesses. However, the station has not been presented the ordinance stipulating the reasons to start the probe, Info-Prim Neo reports. The penal inquest is conducted against the radio station, but without presenting an ordinance accusing the management of separate journalists, lawyer Constantin Tanase told a news conference on Wednesday, April 23. According to him, the interrogated listeners were not asked as to the object of the penal probe, but only “questions with political character”. During five months, having the broadcast’s text, the investigators have worded no accusation, yet they have not cancelled the probe either. All the incertitude around the case, Constantin Tanase says, damages Vocea Basarabiei’s image. Especially now, when the station asks the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) for new broadcasting licenses put up for auction. Or, it is known that the Broadcasting Regulator strictly monitors the frequency solicitors and, in case of trials, refuses to issue licenses. “All the procedural terms have expired and we’ll ask the General Prosecutor to give us an explanation. In case the probe goes on, we’ll sue the prosecutors’ procedural acts,” the counselor says. The station’s co-founders, Valeriu Saharneanu and Veaceslav Tabuleac, say they learnt of the probe only in March, when Anti-Corruption Center officers came to perform a financial control of the station. Both believe the question is about a new attempt to intimidate the ones trying to express their opinion freely. According to Valeriu Saharneanu, the attacks on the independent media, including on Vocea Basarabiei, and, more recently, on publication Jurnal de Chisinau, the bank accounts of which were frozen, are enormous blows onto the state’s image. The station founders claim frequencies in Chisinau, Balti, Cahul, Ungheni, Briceni, Drochia and Ocnita. If are granted, Vocea Basarabiei will become a network with national coverage, Veaceslav Tabuleac specified. According to Valeriu Saharneanu, during eight years Vocea Basarabiei lodged 120 frequency applications and got but eight. If this time they are not issued licenses for the frequencies requested, they will sue the BCC for the entire period. “We want to show that this institution, instead of dealing with regulations in the interest and for the development of the national broadcasting, in fact is blocking it. We are the victims of the undemocratic activity of this institution,” Saharneanu said. Vocea Basarabiei’s founders announce the station will broadcast programs in Romanian produced by Deutsche Welle and Radio Romania Actualitati, in addition to their own programs and the ones of Radio Free Europe and the BBC. The results of the contest announced by the BCC will be known in May.