A new law – only a pretense

Dorin SCOBIOALĂ,

Theoretically, upon entry into force of the Law on the transparency of mass media ownership, this fall, every citizen or NGO can claim and obtain information about the owners of mass media institutions of the Republic of Moldova and about final recipients of their income. During the voting in final reading, half a year ago, the members of the Parliament from the alliance constituted by PLDM, PD, PCRM rejected the PL proposed amendment that organizations and journalists associations insisted on, concerning the interdiction of ownership of mass media outlets (especially in the audiovisual) by companies registered in the so-called off-shore areas. Thus, taking into account the specific of off-shore areas to not disclose the recipient’s identity, we have no chance of finding out who is hiding behind the ” foreign” companies, so interested to invest in our media market within the last few years. So, what change does the new law bring? None!

“Foreign” investors
On March 5, on the day when the Parliament was voting the amendments to the Broadcasting Code, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Culture, Education, Research, youth, sports and mass media”, Chiril Lucinschi, stated that the project has been drawn up together with the Centre for Independent Journalism, thus attempting to confer legitimacy to the amendments and give the impression that their adoption would meet the civil society requirements. But there was no word related to the fact that media experts were asking for a real and functional mechanism, that would allow identifying the real owners of mass media institutions. The Liberal - Democtrats leader, Vlad Filat, stated during the debates that the inclusion of this provision in the law, will limit the foreign investors access to the Republic of Moldova media market. Though nobody suggested to prohibit certain foreign citizens or companies to own mass media institutions, it was just about the off-shore area companies, whose owners cannot by identified and publicly disclosed.

No transparency = monopoly
The new formal, ambiguous and truncated text of the new law allows the mass media market, especially that of the audiovisual, to remain non-transparent, monopolised and under political control. The Moldovan citizen is deprived of the right to be informed from different sources, with different views, as long as many of the TV and radio channels, newspapers, news portals are concentrated in the hands of a few interest-groups. When a news report, produced by the same team, is broadcast by four TV channels, what kind of plurality of opinions can we talk about? A more competent public knows what is behind these games. An uninformed public perceives the information communicated by many televisions as an undisputed truth, mainly if he has no access to other information sources.
As a result, huge possibilities for manipulation arise. The fact that many media institutions are controlled and ruled only from one location, confines the freedom of expression as well: the journalists have to choose either to accept the censorship and self-censorship, dictated by the employer’s interests, or to become unemployed. Thus, the society is forced to accept a single view on events and a certain perception of reality.
If the names of the owners of mass media outlets would be publicly disclosed, the public would be able to make an informed assessment of the reliability of the information disseminated by each media institution.

No taxes
From a financial point of view, the fact that the holders of broadcasting licenses are foreign companies, registered in off-shore areas means an open door for domestic capital flight: money gained in the Republic of Moldova are legally transferred to the ”founder’s” foreign accounts, getting lost on Bermuda islands or in Gibraltar. For our fellow citizens hiding behind those companies, it is an unique possibility to avoid paying taxes, because their incomes cannot be assessed and subjected to tax payment by the Moldovan tax authorities.

Disclosing mass media owners would have the expected effect only together with other regulations, starting with the limitation of the number of licenses held by a single person and up to the monitoring of programs and sanctioning of broadcasters for lack of pluralism, propaganda and political bias. In order to make these reforms possible, it is necessary to change the manner in which control bodies are formed. First of all the Coordinating Council of the Audiovisual needs to be changed, by putting an end to the practice of appointing members based on political criteria, in favor of experts proposed by civil society. As long as the appointment of CCA members will depend on political parties, the members of which are also the main players on the media market, there is no chance for things to change for the better. 

The article was published within the Advocacy Campaigns Aimed at Improving Transparency of Media Ownership, Access to Information and promotion of EU values  and integration project, implemented by the IJC, which is, in its turn, part of the Moldova Partnerships for Sustainable Civil Society project, implemented by FHI 360.
 
This article is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The content are the responsibility of author and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.