The Șor Party asks to postpone the examination of the bill to amend the Audiovisual Media Services Code in the second reading, IPN reports. In a press briefing, Șor Party MP Vadim Fotescu said that the opinion of international experts is needed, primarily of the Council of Europe, and the opinions of all the media experts should be taken into account or Moldova will be unable to avoid another crisis, in the mass media sector already.

According to Vadim Fotescu, the government coalition last week, in only six days of the registration the bill to amend the Audiovisual Media Services Code, gave a first reading to this. Under the bill, the public broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova will be brought back under the Parliament’s oversight and the members of the Audiovisual Council will be dismissed altogether if the Council’s annual progress report is not accepted by the parliamentary majority. The draft law does not yet specify the assessment criteria.

The MP noted Teleradio-Moldova is subject to political pressure and the goal of the government is to transform it into a propaganda instrument of the power.

Vadim Fotescu said the parliamentary majority didn’t even ask for the opinion of international organizations even if it, until recently, promised to respect the European values and to ensure transparency, de-politicization and the fight against corruption. In reality, the mass media are directly subjugated and the current government actually aims to name convenient persons at all the state institutions.

The bill to amend the Audiovisual Media Services Code was adopted by the MPs by a majority of votes after it was given a first reading on October 21.