Parliament to decide on Friday upon the live transmissions of its sittings

Parliament will examine on Friday, March 23, the draft law on cancelling the compulsory character of the live transmission of its sittings. The draft law stirred controversy in Parliament. The draft law, signed by the Christian-democrat MPs Iurie Rosca and Stefan Secareanu, as well as the communist MP Victor Stepaniuc proposes to amendment the Parliament Regulations in order to the cancel the compulsory character of the live transmissions at the national radio and TV station of Parliament sittings. The draft law was registered on Monday, March 19 and will be discussed tomorrow. “Moldova Noastra” Alliance MP Veaceslav Untila said that this draft law aims at shutting up the mouth of the opposition because it has standpoints different from the government. This initiative is violating the Constitution because the Parliament Regulations have not been enacted yet. It looks like giving a birth certificate to a child before his actual birth, the MP said. Speaker Marian Lupu said that the Regulations will be published “today or tomorrow” so that the debate should take place when it will come into force. MP Dumitru Braghis said that he submitted a legislative initiative on February 14 and this document has not been introduced in the agenda yet, while the present initiative is. Referring to its character, the MP said that Rosca has indirectly became the boss of “Euro TV Chisinau” and he does not need a public TV station because he will use his own TV channel to push his ideas. According to Vitalia Pavlicenco, the red-orange coalition is afraid of the opposition’s opinions, this being the reason for the decision, after it took hold of “Euro TV” and “Antena C”. She called on “the true opposition” to make common cause and to oppose to the start of “Christian-democrat – communist dictatorship”. MP Leonid Bujor considers that by amending this article, the citizens of Moldova will be deprived of the right to have objective information about the situation in Parliament. “A very odious thing is being set up”, he said. Victor Stepaniuc, one of the authors of the draft law told reporters that according to the Broadcasting Code, anyone in this field has editorial freedom; however the article 82 of the new Regulations insists that TRM broadcast the sittings of the Parliament, fact which is interference in the editorial and financial activity. He mentioned that after the amendment will be passed, the Company will still have the right to transmit the sittings live. Moreover, when Parliament will consider necessary, through the majority vote of the MPs, it will request the Company to broadcast the sitting. Stepaniuc says that there are many persons who, instead of working, watch the sittings of the Parliament. “Several employers said that they are disturbed by the transmissions”, the MP stated. The proposal of Bujor to exclude the draft law from the agenda was rejected by the Communist and Christian-democrat MPs, excepting Gheorghe Susarenco. The live transmission of Parliament sittings was on of the 10 conditions presented by the Christian-democrat MPs for the re-election of President Vladimir Voronin as head of state on April 4, 2005.