Representative of Council of Europe to Moldova hopes ACC to respond to citizens’ interests and not to party’s ones

The special Representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe to Moldova, Vladimir Ristovski, hopes that the appointment of the members of the Audiovisual Coordinating Council (ACC) will be performed beyond the political parties’ interests and taking into account the interests of the citizens and of the society on the whole. The European official made this statement during a meeting with the speaker of Moldovan Parliament Marian Lupu. According to the press and image service of the Parliament, Ristovski stated that “the Council of Europe pays a special attention to the development of a democratic broadcasting space, so we follow carefully the implementation of the new Audiovisual Code”. Marian Lupu said in turn that the Parliament pledges to implement the legislation related to the Broadcast in a transparent way. “Moldova assumed seriously a number of engagements in front of the Council of Europe, and intends to meet them in the spirit of the European common values”, speaker Lupu added. The Parliament will vote the new ACC composition on Friday 20 October. The parliamentary opposition and NGOs in the field have criticized the proposed candidatures, as well as the manner in which they were appointed, accusing the specialized commission of deviations from the legislation in force and of selecting the candidates according to the party’s principles.