BCC Activity Report for 2016 Reveals Major Problems in the Broadcasting Field

The Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) made public on Thursday, 2^nd of February 2017, its Activity Report for 2016. The document, adopted by BCC members at a meeting held last week, contains both an analysis of the institution's work performed in 2016 and the tasks for the current year.

According to the BCC, “a large number of Russian stations are identified in the process of authorisation and approval of the offers of broadcasting services submitted by service providers”. This trend is explained by the fact that the retransmission of the stations from Romania and from the entire European area would be more expensive, than the retransmission of Russian stations.

The report notes that the 38 sanctions applied by the BCC to broadcasters throughout the election campaign did not have the expected effect, “because the political partisanship has been constant”. The BCC considers it is appropriate to review in the future the procedure for penalising the offenders in the broadcasting field in order “to exclude the graduality and increase the penalties commensurate with the derogation committed by them”.

With regard to the delay in the transition from the analogue terrestrial television to the digital terrestrial TV, the BCC report notes that digital terrestrial television services in the first Multiplex A were launched by 1^st of November 2016 and that only 8 channels (Moldova-1, TVR Moldova, Canal 2, Canal 3, Publika TV, Prime, Accent TV and N 4) have signed collaboration contracts with “Radiocomunicaţii” State Enterprise. According to the Report, this fact might be explained by the lack of a regulatory framework on the time limits for the conclusion of contracts between “Radiocomunicaţii” State Enterprise and the holders of broadcasting licenses, as well as by the substantial cost of multiplex services.

The report also points out the major problems related to the legal framework in the field of broadcasting in the Gagauzian Autonomous-Territorial Unit, “in particular, the attempts to change the legal framework with the purpose to establish the censorship on the broadcasting media in the Autonomous-Territorial Unit and to substitute, contrarily to the provisions of the Moldovan legislation, the licensing, supervision and control powers of the central public administration and of State authorities”. This fact, the report points out, seriously affects the activity of the regional public broadcaster “Găgăuziya Radio Televizionu” and further favours the illegal activity of certain service distributors and broadcasters that do not have a retransmission authorisation and broadcasting licences issued by the BCC, as provided by the legislation of the Republic of Moldova.

Similar problems are faced by the broadcasting field on the left-side bank of the Dniester that operates without any coordination with the specialised institutions of the Republic of Moldova.

The BCC priorities for 2017 include developing, supporting and promoting proposals and drafts for amending and supplementing the legislation, in particular the Broadcasting Code; ensure the citizens' access to information sources through broadcasting services provided by the local, regional and national broadcasters; secure the domestic information space, as a result of the systematic evaluation of information-analytical broadcasting services, etc.