The Socialist Party Law on modifying the Broadcasting Code reached the Presidential Administration. The Civil Society requests a meeting with the Head of State

The draft law on modifying and supplementing the Broadcasting Code, developed by a group of MPs from the Party of Socialists (PSRM) and voted in the first and second reading on February 26, 2016, has been signed by Speaker Andrian Candu and sent to President Nicolae Timofti for promulgation. Representatives of media organizations challenged this law in a press statement, asking the president not to promulgate it, and now they are requesting a meeting with Nicolae Timofti in order to express their arguments directly.

President’s adviser Aurelia Peru-Balan confirmed the information at a public debate organized by the Independent Journalism Center on Tuesday, April 19. According to her, the draft law has reached the Presidential Administration, but “it hasn’t yet been laid on Nicolae Timofti’s table because there is an internal procedure and drafts are first analyzed by other people.” In this context, civil society representatives present at the public debate asked for a meeting with Nicolae Timofti before he promulgates the law. The president’s adviser promised to transmit the civil society message to the head of state.

At the same event, an author of the legislative initiative, MP Adrian Lebedinschi, said that he personally sent a letter to Nicolae Timofti asking him to return the draft law to the Parliament for re-examination.  “The president is now to decide,” Adrian Lebedinschi said.

It should be reminded that Socialist MPs Vladimir Turcan, Eduard Smirnov, Grigore Novac, and Adrian Lebedinschi proposed modifying Article 66 of the current Broadcasting Code by replacing in paragraph 3 the phrase “not more than five broadcasting licenses” with the phrase “not more than two broadcasting licenses,” and in paragraph 4, the phrase “not more than two broadcasters of different types” with the phrase “not more than 1 broadcaster of different types.” Later, at a press club organized by the Independent Journalism Center, Adrian Lebedinschi said that he had sent an application asking that Speaker Andrian Candu not sign the draft law.

In their turn, media NGOs sent, on March 4, 2016, a letter to President Nicolae Timofti, asking him not to promulgate modifications to the Broadcasting Code, which had been voted in two readings on February 26. They qualified the law developed by the PSRM as “inconsistent” and as an attempt to mime reforms and protect the private interests of some media owners.