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The entry into force, as of October 1, 2017, of the new provisions of the Broadcasting Code, which require broadcasting at least 8 hours of local content per day, of which 6 hours during prime time and 4 hours in Romanian, has made many broadcasters think about the measures they need to take in order to comply. According to Dumitru Tira, executive director of the Association for Development and Cooperation of the Republic of Moldova, “for some of the broadcasters, this is a challenge,” but in his opinion “after 25 years of independence it is high time to start building an autonomous and authentic market.”
Lithuanian experts attending the conference shared their experience in this regard. According to the director of the Lithuanian Journalism Center Džina Donauskaitė (in the photo), foreign investors, when planning businesses in the media, are considering the size of the country’s media market. According to the expert, the degree of freedom of the media and freedom of expression is also important: “No foreign investor engaged or specialized in media business will come to a country where journalists have no access to information and cannot collect and disseminate information. A key precondition for attracting investors is freedom of speech,” said Džina Donauskaitė.
The expert said that foreign media investors who developed businesses in Lithuania through their investment encouraged young journalists to launch media startups. Donauskaitė said that a part of Lithuanian journalists and business people, who have tried new media business models, have become leaders in the country’s online market.
Džina Donauskaitė added that after talks between businesses and decision-makers, Lithuanian authorities revised the tax legislation in relation to the media. “We now have 9% VAT for print media and 0% for information about public services,” the expert said.
Representatives of Moldova’s filmmaking industry have expressed their views on investments in this field. Director Sergiu Prodan believes that Moldovan leaders should create better conditions for investors, so they face less risk in filmmaking. Prodan reproached local businessmen: “There is no money circulation in the industry in Moldova. Broadcasters communicate very little with production houses and don’t do much business. If money does not circulate, there is no movement, and we are looking for foreign investments. We need to create a local organism with small, purely symbolic, amounts, so we have at least some sort of circulation mechanism. Because filmmaking today practically exists only in the production of advertising,” Prodan said.
German expert Filip Slavcovic from Deutsche Welle told participants that the media business in Germany is the most developed economic sector after the automotive industry. Speaking of investments, Slavkovic said that the main media structures in Germany are still considering opportunities to invest abroad, but the possibilities of entering the East European media market are analyzed very carefully, because funds have been lost there. However, he believes that investors who will focus on developing the digital domain will benefit, especially if they focus on opening new startups, including through WhatsAPP, Viber, Skype and other programs of this kind.
Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu, present at the event, said that the Parliament intends to update the media law, in order to attract investors to the media market. “Obviously, it would be good to have legislation that will bring some benefits, perhaps even tax incentives. In addition, efforts are still needed to protect copyright, and much is also to be done to improve the media system and infrastructure in Moldova,” Andrian Candu said.
The US Ambassador in Chisinau James D. Pettit also attended the conference. The diplomat drew the participants’ attention to the need to develop new media business models, emphasizing that free media is important for democracy and for democratic institutions.
The event was organized by the Association for Development and Cooperation of the Republic of Moldova with the support of the Moldovan Parliament, the US Embassy in Moldova, USAID, Freedom House, Internews in Moldova, the EU and the Council of Europe project “Promoting Media Freedom and Pluralism in Moldova.”
