Audio-Visual Code doesn’t meet international standards, according to experts and politicians

The draft of the Audio-Visual Code, approved by the Parliament in first reading, has many gaps and lacks and has to be examined additionally, this is the conclusion of the majority of participants at the round table held on Friday, 14 April in Chisinau. Journalists, mass media experts, profile NGOs representatives and political parties attended this event. The majority of speakers referred to stipulations regarding appointment of the members of the Coordinating Council of Audio-Visual (CCA), to the fact that this Code excludes local public radiobroadcasters out of the media, as well as other stipulations, which in participants’ opinion are against democratic norms and recommendations of the Council of Europe. According to Constantin Partac, expert in audio-visual field, the Code has unclear issues in every chapter. He referred especially to the appointment of CCA members. In his opinion, whatever promises the authors would make, appointment of CCA members by the parliament at the proposal of the speciality commission would still leave unsolved the biggest problem that CCA has faced in last 10 years, namely the control and interference of the government into its activity. Not Parliament’s vote frightens, but the fact that the current draft allows the appointment of CCA of certain obedient persons, dishonest, as it has happened before, he noted. According to Partac, at least for selecting candidates for the position of CCA member involving professional organizations and NGOs is recommended. MP Dumitru Braghis said that in this situation the existence of an Audio-Visual Code would be more effective than three laws, but after April 2005, the legislation itself is not so important, but its implementation. Braghis said that in order to exclude any doubts, it would be necessary that CCA members to be appointed by unanimous voted. Referring to the fact that the new draft of the Audio-Visual Code does not stipulate the existence of local public institutions, Braghis mentioned that by this step, the authors get prepared to the elections of 2007 and the leading party wants to control all mass media of Moldova. In the opinion of the deputy of the Alliance „Moldova Noastra” (AMN) Anatol Taranu, the Audio-Visual Code „answers perfectly to all political influence mechanism in audio-visual”. By this Code, the “red-orange coalition” prepares its victory for parliamentary elections of 2009, Taranu underlined. At his turn, councillor of the AMN faction, Victor Osipov characterized this Code as „fragments of all unregulated projects and not complying with European standards”. According to him, the Code does not meet many recommendations of CoE, and its approval would be equal with sabotage of the integration process of Moldova to EU. The chairman of the Journalists’ Union, Valeriu Saharneanu, the head of the Office Free Europe in Chisinau, Vasile Botnaru, the manager of Acces-Info, Vasile Spinei, APEL chairman, Alexandru Dorogan, etc, also expressed their opinion on the lacks of this code. The manager of the radio station Vocea Basarabiei, Veaceslav Tabuleac, proposed to protest in front of the Parliament against the Code. All comments and proposals made at the round table will be sent to the Parliament. The Audio-Visual Code was approved in first reading, with the vote of Communist, Christian Democrat and Democrat members of Parliament, on 6 April. The draft was issued by the deputies of three mentioned factions and will be sent for expertise to the Council of Europe.