The civil society and listeners solicit resuming the broadcast of Antena C radio

Over 100 persons gathered on Sunday, December 17, in front of the headquarters of radio Antena C asking for the resumption of its broadcasting. The participants included the members of the staff, representatives of the civil society, political parties, as well as the listeners and supporters of the radio. They protested against the fact that the radios station was closed and against the “trick with the bomb” that took place last night, and as a result of which all the journalists from Antena C had been evacuated and seals were put on the doors. Vasile State, the director of the station who was dismissed on Thursday told Info-Prim Neo that the statements of Radiocumunicatii enterprise about the technical failures that generated the interruption of the broadcasting are inventions. In 8 years of works never happened that a device fails and in this way all 4 transmitters stop broadcasting. According to State, the responsible persons from Radiocomunicatii said that the broadcasting will be resumed after 10 days. Meanwhile another failure “occurred” that stopped the wire broadcasting, State said. Valeriu Saharneanu, the chairman of the Journalists Union who was present at the protest action said that “the trick with the bomb” is a method that was used in 2004 too, when the journalists from “Teleradio-Moldova” were evacuated by force. According to him, Radio Moldova ran down and turned into a political propaganda instrument of the government party. It is very probable the same thing happens with Antena C because it is clearly a political order. Saharneanu said that he saw the same situation at Euro TV: many policemen who persecute the journalists, members of the staff crying because they will be forced to search another workplace and because the professional deontology will not allow them to go to state-controlled media. Stefan Uratu, the chairman of the Moldovan Helsinki Committee for Human Rights says that this situation is regrettable for a country stating it walks towards Europe and it wants to build the democracy and to protect the human rights. He said that until yesterday he was still believing that it is tried to adjust the activity of the two stations with the legal provisions, but he ascertained the fact that there are other local broadcasters which work on a similar base without any troubles. He said that when the signal disappeared he went to Radiocumunicatii where he discussed with the representatives of this company, but their explanations are not even worth for a critic. According to the cited source, the failures they speak about can be solved within 10-15 minutes. Alexandru Mihai, the Chisinau commissioner of police refused to talk with the representatives of the press and offer information on the so-called bomb. He declared that the meeting in front of the station is not authorised and the participants must be administratively punished. The action in front of the station was observed by several men who were staying at a close distance. Another 2 persons were filming the action and the participants. According to the previous announcements, on Saturday, December 23, Antena C and Euro TV will organises an authorised protest action linked to the reorganisation of the two stations and dismissal of the directors.