The Council for the Promotion of Investment Projects of National Importance decided to suspend, as a preventive measure, the validity of the permissive documents of the company “Media Content Distribution”, which manages Channel 5 TV channel and Maestro FM radio station, IPN reports.

According to a Government’s press release, the decision was taken by the Council at a meeting on March 20 as a result of reasonable suspicions about the involvement of the company’s beneficial owners in activities affecting state security. At the same time, there were identified no limitations or risks for the preliminary approval of investments of importance for state security for seven other audiovisual companies.

By March 12, the Investment Agency received 40 applications for prior consent to investments of importance for state security, which were made available to the Council members for analysis and opinion. In the case of another four companies, the broadcast licenses were withdrawn based on their requests. The remaining applications are to be examined at the next meetings of the Council.

Earlier, the Commission for Emergency Situations, which worked for two years, decided, on the recommendation of the Security and Intelligence Service, to suspend the broadcast licenses of a number of television stations. According to the authorities, they promote foreign interests for the purpose of destabilizing the Republic of Moldova.