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Independent Journalism Center director Nadine Gogu, who opened the round table, mentioned that the situation in the Supervisory Board has been constantly on the agenda of the civil society. She believes that one of SB’s problems is the fact that the current Broadcasting Code does not provide for a concrete period of time in which the parliament can confirm SB members. “The procedure of election of new SB members has been slowed down by the parliament: the BCC makes proposals to the parliament, but it rejects them.”
The authors of the study – media researcher Victor Gotisan and media law expert Tatiana Puiu – underlined the main organizational and legislative gaps that they found in the work of the SB in recent years and made recommendations to solve them. They also encouraged round table participants to share their opinions in order to include them into the study.
BCC member Mariana Onceanu-Hadarca said that when speaking about the SB, “the accent should be placed on its work tasks, because they are the basis for adoption of the company’s budget.” Also, in Mariana Onceanu-Hadarca’s opinion, the BCC filter in the election of members for the SB should be removed, so that they could be proposed by the civil society and then confirmed by the parliament.
“The problems I see are the quality of persons in the SB and excessive politicization of the company. The authors’ recommendations are very good, but I’m afraid that they won’t be taken into consideration, because we have no persuasion mechanisms,” said Dragos Vicol, another member of the BCC.
Why don’t professionals get into the SB? Victor Gotisan believes that it is because of the political factor. “Several media experts, including Petru Macovei, Ion Bunduchi and Eugeniu Ribca, participated in the contest for membership in the SB, but the parliament rejected them, because they didn’t represent any party interests,” he said.
In Gotisan’s opinion, the situation in the SB and in the “Teleradio-Moldova” company overall fully reflects the current situation in Moldova. In this sense, he gave an example: “While working on the study, we examined the results of the check conducted by the Court of Accounts, which found disappearance of 6 million lei from TRM budget. We asked the SB if they had somehow reacted to the theft, and their answer was: What could we do? We are just a Supervisory Board!”
Participants in the event mentioned other aspects of the SB’s work, too. In the opinion of Ion Terguta, who moderated the round table, the SB has assumed too many improper functions. Media law expert Eugeniu Ribca believes that the work of the SB should be planned and that the institution should be more open. “Maybe the number of SB members should be reduced?” he wondered. In his turn, media expert Ion Bunduchi found that the current status of the SB is convenient for its members, because it does not involve any responsibilities. Ion Bunduchi appreciated the IJC’s effort in producing the study, but he said he doubts that the SB will take into account the recommendations, since “they are not even present at this discussion that concerns them directly.”
One of the solutions proposed by the authors of the study is to adopt a new Broadcasting Code. In this sense, Sergiu Cornetchi, senior consultant in the parliamentary commission on mass media, brought some good news to round table participants: on Monday, November 30, the parliamentary commission on mass media begins hearings concerning the draft of the new Broadcasting Code.
The round table was also attended by socialist MPs Adrian Lebedinschi and Marina Radvan, member of the parliamentary commission on mass media.
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The study has been produced by IJC experts as part of the “Strengthening the legal framework on mass media in Moldova” project, implemented by the IJC with the financial support of Civil Rights Defenders, Sweden.
