The number of members of the Broadcasting Coordination Council should be reduced from nine to five or seven. Such a proposal was submitted in the public debates on the new draft Broadcasting Code held within the parliamentary commission on culture, education, research and mass media, IPN reports.
“We think that five members are enough if emphasis is placed on the apparatus. I discussed with many European experts and these shared the opinion that there should be fewer members, but the apparatus should be strong so as to cope with all the rigors. The five members should be elected by Parliament, while the Council’s head by a majority of votes of the Council members,” said media expert Ion Bunduchi.
The commission’s chairman Vladimir Hotineanu said that a new ruling alliance is being negotiated and one of the conditions for forming it is to depoliticize the state institutions, including the Broadcasting Coordination Council. “If we leave this political distribution gate, the new Code will not help us either,” he stated.
Acting minister of education Corina Fusu said they should say it openly that the Council members are named by the political parties. “It’s better for the parties to openly support the persons they delegate and we will thus know why these voted one way or another,” she stated.
The draft Code also suggests naming the Broadcasting Coordination Council as Broadcasting Council. It provides that if a Council member is absent from seven meetings, this will be dismissed.
The debates also focused on the financing of the institution. The draft Code stipulates that the state subsidies should be approved for five years, with 60% of the costs to be covered during two years and 40% during the next three years. The other costs should be covered with the licensing taxes so as to ensure increased independence.
