Media Expert: New Draft Broadcasting Code Provides for Limitation of Concentration

The Council of the EU appealed to the Government to improve legislation so as to guarantee pluralism of opinions and to limit concentration of ownership in mass media. To what extent could the new Broadcasting Code solve these issues? Media Azi asked for the opinion of media expert Ion Bunduchi, one of the authors of the draft law that has recently been approved by the Government.
 

“The fact that the Council of the European Union considered concentration to be one of the gravest problems of the Moldovan media is not at all accidental. Where there is concentration, media pluralism disappears, and pluralism is a norm of democracy.

The draft Broadcasting Code contains several provisions in this regard. In article 77, “Limitation of ownership concentration in broadcasting,” for example, paragraph 1 says: “To protect diversity and pluralism of opinions, the Broadcasting Council shall limit ownership concentration and extension of audience share in broadcasting to dimensions that could ensure economic efficiency, but would not generate dominant positions in creation of public opinion.”

Paragraph 4 of the same article stipulates that no broadcaster, except public broadcasters, can air more than 2 program services in one administrative-territorial unit of level two or in one municipality.

Article 78, “Limitation of audience share on the market of program services,” stipulates in paragraph 4: “An individual or a legal entity shall be deemed to have a dominant position in the creation of public opinion if the audience share of its program services exceeds 30% of significant market.”

The same article provides in paragraph 6 that the audience share of every national, regional and local program service shall be determined annually by means of the average audience share registered during the corresponding year, during the entire broadcasting period.

Next, according to paragraph 7, the Broadcasting Council shall initiate the procedure of assessing whether an individual or a legal entity has dominant position in the creation of public opinion if there are well-founded signs that the limit stipulated in paragraph 4 has been reached.

I hope that the draft law will be improved during public hearings and in parliamentary debates. At the same time, some of the recommendations of the Ministry of Justice are reasonable and can be accepted immediately, while others require additional discussions, until optimal formulas are found. For example, there was no Competition Council when the draft was developed (2010-2011), so the text mentions the National Agency for Protection of Competition. There are other aspects we should review as well so as to find solutions and truly contribute to the development of the sector based on democratic principles.”