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Рy08 July 2016
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On Thursday, July, 7 the parliament adopted two bills nr.125 (LP) and nr.218 (DP) in the first reading that provide updates for the Broadcasting Code in force. Some deputies were dissatisfied that they had to debate these bills too because on July, 1 they examined and voted the new bill of the Broadcasting Code in the first reading. The authors of the legislative initiatives motivated that these updates will be used as amendments to voting the new bill in second reading.
The first initiative, that of liberals, was presented by the deputy Lilian Carp. According to the bill "Broadcasters and service distributors will broadcast local informative and analytical programs in proportion of 100 per cent, 80 per cent of them will be in Romanian. The broadcasting of informative and analytical programs realized in the EU and USA member states, as well as the states that have ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television is allowed. According to the document, in case if the broadcasters don't respect this provision, they risk fines from 30.000 lei till 50.000 lei, suspension of the broadcasting license for a period of 30 days or its withdrawal.
The SPRM didn't agree with this and they replied that the liberals' bill would contradict art. 10 of the European Convention for Human Rights and other national legislative acts.
The second bill of updating the present Broadcasting Code, which authors are the DP deputies, increases the evening primetime, from 6 p.m. till 12 o'clock midnight and prohibits the broadcasting of military, analytical and political programs from the states which didn't sign the European Convention regarding the Transfrontier television. At the same time, the bill nr. 218 requires television to boost the domestic product in primetime hours, from four to six hours, considering that they have to have broadcasts of domestic product eight times a day. „All the broadcasters from the Republic of Moldova that are registered are obliged to respect the provisions of the Broadcasting Code”. „We proposed a series of sanctions for the art. 38, from fines till the prohibition of placing advertising and finally, withdrawal of license, but obviously only through court”, explained the DP deputy, Sergiu Sârbu. Though, initially the deputies of LDPM took part in the elaboration of the bill, these gave up at the beginning of the debates and withdrew their signatures from the document.
The initiative of democrats drew harsh responses in the parliament's session. The vice-president of LDPM, Vadim Pistrinciuc expresses his concern that „this bill doesn't prohibit propaganda, but puts additional regulations which can stop the little freedom of expression that exists in Moldova nowadays". According to the deputy of LDPM, the bill of DP contains provisions that can create problems for small channels or independent production studios. "We don't want to find ourselves as we all watch the only five channels of your party, it would be great danger", warned Vadim Pistrinciuc.
The bills nr.125 and nr. 218 were presented to the parliament for approval in April and May 2015. As both of them woke up controversial discussions in the society, the speaker Andrian Candu decided to require their approval by European institutions. Subsequently, the Council of Europe and the representative of OSCE for mass media freedom examined these legislative initiatives and made the appropriate recommendations.
The first initiative, that of liberals, was presented by the deputy Lilian Carp. According to the bill "Broadcasters and service distributors will broadcast local informative and analytical programs in proportion of 100 per cent, 80 per cent of them will be in Romanian. The broadcasting of informative and analytical programs realized in the EU and USA member states, as well as the states that have ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television is allowed. According to the document, in case if the broadcasters don't respect this provision, they risk fines from 30.000 lei till 50.000 lei, suspension of the broadcasting license for a period of 30 days or its withdrawal.
The SPRM didn't agree with this and they replied that the liberals' bill would contradict art. 10 of the European Convention for Human Rights and other national legislative acts.
The second bill of updating the present Broadcasting Code, which authors are the DP deputies, increases the evening primetime, from 6 p.m. till 12 o'clock midnight and prohibits the broadcasting of military, analytical and political programs from the states which didn't sign the European Convention regarding the Transfrontier television. At the same time, the bill nr. 218 requires television to boost the domestic product in primetime hours, from four to six hours, considering that they have to have broadcasts of domestic product eight times a day. „All the broadcasters from the Republic of Moldova that are registered are obliged to respect the provisions of the Broadcasting Code”. „We proposed a series of sanctions for the art. 38, from fines till the prohibition of placing advertising and finally, withdrawal of license, but obviously only through court”, explained the DP deputy, Sergiu Sârbu. Though, initially the deputies of LDPM took part in the elaboration of the bill, these gave up at the beginning of the debates and withdrew their signatures from the document.
The initiative of democrats drew harsh responses in the parliament's session. The vice-president of LDPM, Vadim Pistrinciuc expresses his concern that „this bill doesn't prohibit propaganda, but puts additional regulations which can stop the little freedom of expression that exists in Moldova nowadays". According to the deputy of LDPM, the bill of DP contains provisions that can create problems for small channels or independent production studios. "We don't want to find ourselves as we all watch the only five channels of your party, it would be great danger", warned Vadim Pistrinciuc.
The bills nr.125 and nr. 218 were presented to the parliament for approval in April and May 2015. As both of them woke up controversial discussions in the society, the speaker Andrian Candu decided to require their approval by European institutions. Subsequently, the Council of Europe and the representative of OSCE for mass media freedom examined these legislative initiatives and made the appropriate recommendations.
