Civil society proposes placing ACC out of governmental control

The stipulations of the draft Audiovisual Code (AC) regarding the appointment and activity of the Audiovisual Coordinating Council (ACC) will not be able to solve one of the main problems of the Moldovan audiovisual – political unwarrantable interference. Experts and representatives of the civil society elaborated a series of proposals for changing the draft which will be submitted to the specialized Parliamentary Committee. Olivia Partac, jurist at the Independent Center of Journalism presented on Monday, May 29 at the National Conference “the draft Audiovisual Code: expertise and contributions of the civil society”, the proposals of the representatives of civil society on the provisions of the Code regarding the regulation authority in the field. The national conference is the result of 5 public debates, which took place during April-May 2006 in Chisinau. Within these debates the experts and the representatives of NGOs from the area debated and formulated amendments to the draft AC. The experts propose taking ACC out of the “parliament’s control” and also eliminating the attribution of “observer of the public and private broadcasters” and of “supervising the correctness of the programs offered by the broadcasters”. The specialists solicit revising the ACC competencies regarding the activity of “Teleradio-Moldova” Company and also appointing and dismissing the leadership of the Company, monitoring the implementation of the budget etc. Olivia Partac, who presented the proposals of the experts, mentioned that they insisted especially on excluding the last stipulation, justifying by the fact the public service must be supervised by an autonomous body and the structure proposed in the draft AC could become a “vertical of the government”. A series of proposals tackle the article regarding the composition of ACC and the way its members are appointed. According to the representatives of the civil society this article was one of the most criticized both by national and foreign experts because the formula proposed in the draft allows access to this body of unprofessional , dishonest and liable to political influence persons. Thus, the experts proposed 3 variants of proposals, the main of them stipulating that the Parliament appoints and approves the ACC members, grounding on consultations with the civil society. As well changing the terms of a member mandate, from 5, as the draft stipulates to 6. It was also proposed that at the first stage, 3 members to be appointed for 2 years, 3 members for 4 years and other 3 for a full mandate. The “Moldova Noastra” Alliance MP, Anatol Onceanu supported all the proposals and modifications, considering them better than the Code’s stipulations. According to him the most serious problem is that these proposals will not be accepted by the Parliamentary majority. It is very important that the Parliament accept the proposed modifications emphasized the vice chairman of the Liberal Party, Dorin Chirtoaca. At the public debates participated the Association of Electronic Press, the Independent Journalism Center, the “Acces-Info” Center, the Association of Independent Journalists, the Organization “the Jurists for Human Rights”, experts Constantin Marin, Constantin Partac, politicians, jurists etc. The event was organized by the Public Policy Institute with the support of the Swedish Agency for Development and International Cooperation and of the Soros-Moldova Foundation.