NGOs call upon new government to reform mass media

Mass media nongovernmental organizations submitted a road map on the work of mass media to the Head of Parliament Mihai Ghimpu and the parliamentary commission for culture, education, research, sport and mass media, Info-Prim Neo reports. The document contains five types of reforms proposed by the civil society: the reform of the public broadcaster, the reform of the Broadcasting Coordination Council, the denationalization of the press, policies to stimulate the development of the independent press and legislative reforms. The civil society considers that the legislature must work out and implement legal mechanisms so that the candidates for member of the Supervisory Board of the National Public Broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova (TRM) be selected not according to political criteria. The NGOs say that the state and political organizations should exert no pressure and should not interfere in the editorial policy of the TRM, including by ensuring the financial independence of the public broadcaster. The signatories say the Broadcasting Coordination Council must be obliged to take part in yearly parliamentary hearings and render reports on the Council's work, while the decisions made by the Council should be obligatorily motivated. The proposed legislative reforms are aimed at stimulating the development of the press in Moldova and at creating equal economic conditions for all the editorial offices: denationalizing the periodical publications, ensuring equal and transparent access to state publicity by organizing tender contests, providing subsidies and exempting the newspapers from paying VAT on revenues coming from editorial work. The signatories call on the new government to show devotion to the the European norms on mass media and ensure the freedom of expression so as to strengthen the democratic process in Moldova. The road map was signed by the Independent Journalism Center, the Independent Press Association, the Association of Electronic Press, “Acces-Info” Center, the Journalistic Investigations Center, the Committee for the Freedom of the Press, the Center for Young Journalists, and the Journalists Union of Moldova.