Back to the Future Or Everybody Is Equal in Moldova, but Some Are More Equal than Others

On February 26, the Parliament voted, in just a few minutes, in the first and second reading, the draft Law on amending and complementing the Audiovisual Code, which implies the reduction of the number of licenses that every media owner can hold from 5 to 2. The draft that had been developed by a group of MPs from the Socialist Party of the Republic of Moldova, had been registered just 9 days before that and the speed at which it was included in the agenda was unprecedented. Officially, the very quick adoption of this draft is the response to a recommendation of the EU Council to improve the domestic legislation of the Republic of Moldova with a view to limit the concentration of media ownership and to ensure the media pluralism. Neither the lack of the Government’s endorsement nor the fact that the liberal-democratic MPs, who were ready to vote for the draft in the first reading and had a number of amendments for the second reading, stopped the MPs from the no-name majority alliance and the socialist ones to adopt it in a rush voting for it in both readings.

Amendments that do not change anything

In fact, by making this amendment they reinforced the legal provisions in force before 2009. At that time, an amendment to the Audiovisual Code increased the maximum number of licenses held by one person from 2 to 5. Therefore, through the positive vote for the socialists’ draft, the governance recognizes that 7 years ago it purposefully and knowingly created prerequisites for the concentration of the media ownership and for the limitation of the media pluralism. It is praiseworthy that the MPs admitted their error and wanted to correct it. However, their good intentions and the rush with which the amendments were voted in two readings are just dust in the eyes. First of all, the new legal provisions will only be enforced after the end of the validity term of the current broadcasting licenses that have been awarded for 7 years – i.e. until 2021-2022. Second, the Parliament Committee for Culture, Education, Research, Youth, Sports and Media has been working on the new draft of the Audiovisual Code since December last year, which is being publicly consulted now. The amendments suggested by the socialists that will anyway start to have an effect only in 6-7 years, could have been introduced without the demonstrative rush, as provisions in the text of the new law. The statements of one of the draft authors, Adrian Lebedinschi, make him seem naïve or rather make us understand that he considers us naïve. “The owner who holds more than 2 licenses will decide which of these to give up when the first license expires” – the MP said when he was asked to explain the mechanism of enforcing the passed amendments. Have there been many cases in the history of the Republic of Moldova when the license holders gave them up voluntarily? Even with the actual permissive law, we see how methods of avoiding the restrictions are used by registering the licenses that exceed the legal number on the name of close individuals. It is not difficult for us to foresee that this tradition will be continued after the entry into effect of the new provisions. The new provisions of the Audiovisual Code are not able to eliminate the monopoly in this field in the same way as the Law on the transparency of media ownership has not brought any visible change on the Moldovan electronic press market.

… The Moldovan citizens know very well the state of things, but don’t have the tools to change anything in a captive state. However, the foreign partners are not as naïve as in the past and the “success story” is pretty much over. It is unlikely that the observers of the EU Council will consider that their recommendations have been taken into account with a simple comeback to a legal provision before 2009, which will only be applicable in 2021 and for which the methods of avoidance have already been demonstrated.

The system will never restructure voluntarily and on its own initiative. Both internal and external constraints and ongoing monitoring of the deviations from democratic rules, as well as sanctions for such deviations are required. However, we have to recognize again that in Moldova it’s like in the old joke “everybody is equal, but some are more equal than others”.
 
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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.