Moldova

Moldovan MPs amend broadcasting code

October 21, 2009

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Moldovan MPs today amended the Audiovisual Code and allowed parliament to elect members of the supervisory board of the Teleradio-Moldova public company with the vote of a simple majority of deputies rather than with three-fifths of the votes as it was until now.

The initiative was put forward by the ruling Alliance for European Integration which said that this way it wished to make the supervisory body functional again. On the other hand, the opposition Communist Party accused the authorities of trying to take the editorial policy of the Teleradio-Moldova company under their control.

The initiative to amend the Audiovisual Code was examined and passed today in the second reading.

Corina Fusu, chairwoman of the parliamentary committee for education, culture, sport and mass, speaking from parliamentary rostrum: "We pursue only one goal: to do what you failed to do in the parliament of the 16th convocation - to unblock the situation at the supervisory board which is not functional right now."

The Communists criticized the initiative of the alliance, saying that it has not passed an expert assessment by the Council of Europe.

Grigore Petrenco, Communist deputy: "The only goal of these amendments is to politically subordinate the supervisory board and Teleradio-Moldova."

The supervisory board of the Teleradio-Moldova company is the supreme leadership body of the institution. It compromises nine members who are voted by parliament at the proposal of the Audiovisual Council, a media watchdog. Now four posts of board members are vacant.

ProTV, Moldova's private TV channel