New broadcast schedule of “Moldova 1” causes controversy in Parliament

A part of the Democrat and Communist lawmakers are dissatisfied with the new broadcast schedule of the public TV channel “Moldova 1” because the news program “Mesager” in Russian was excluded. However, the Liberal MPs said it is within the national public broadcaster’s competence to set the broadcast schedule and any intervention by the legislature represents interference in the company’s affairs, Info-Prim Neo reports. “I understand that the democratization level has increased, but there should be order. It is not a private, but a public company and the people have the right to know why such decisions are taken. The Russian language news program “Mesager” should be broadcast further, while the changes in the schedule should be motivated. It must be aired during prime time,” said Democrat MP Dumitru Diacov. Communist lawmaker Vadim Misin said that the public broadcaster violated the people’s constitutional rights when it removed ““Mesager” in Russian from the schedule. He stated he will inform all the organizations working in the field about this. Liberal lawmaker Mihai Ghimpu said the Russian language news program “Mesager” was broadcast at 7pm only in the Soviet period. “The Soviet Union disappeared and Russian is not longer an official language. What was done is right and don’t make a fuss,” he stressed. His faction colleague Corina Fusu, who is deputy head of the parliamentary commission on culture, education, research, sport and mass media, said the editorial independence of the public broadcaster is guaranteed by law. “The law hasn’t been broken. Attempts are made to interfere in the activity of the company that we want to depoliticize,” she stated. Communist MP Sergiu Sarbu said the Communist group considers that the national public broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova should not be financed by the state as it must finance itself. “Or it can be financed by Mister Ghimpu. I think he has money,” he said. Liberal lawmaker Valeriu Saharneanu replied that the idea of self-financing is a good, but can be put into practice only after the PCRM returns all the money they stole from the company. From October 10, the news program “Mesager” in Romanian was transferred from 9pm to 7pm, while the similar program in Russian was replaced by three shorter news bulletins.