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Irina Vlah, the Governor of Gagauzia, has refused to sign the law on the activity of Gagauziya Radio Televizionu (GRT) Public Company, which was previously voted for by the local legislative body in Comrat in second reading. She has sent the law back to the MPs, invoking breach of procedures and demanding to review it, according to gagauzmedia.md.
The authors of the law are local MPs Ecaterina Jecova, Alexandr Tarnavski, Gheorghi Efteni, and Nicolai Ormanji. They suggested exempting, through this law, the regional broadcaster from political influence.
According to the reply of the governor of the autonomy to Vladimir Cissa, the President of the People’s Assembly, some provisions of the draft law proposed for signing contradict the other articles of this document, while the other ones duplicate several provisions of the current legislation.
Besides, Irina Vlah objects to the fact that the law did not provide for the position of deputy chairman of the Supervisory Board, “which can make the company’s activity more complicated.”
Another shortcoming reported by the governor of the autonomy is the lack of other administrative functions except that of the general director. The law provides that, if necessary, the functions of the general director shall be assumed by a staff member appointed by the director.
However, the document says that only the Supervisory Board may appoint the general director, respecting certain rules, i.e. not every employee of the company can perform such a function, according to the governor’s reply.
“There is no need to adopt another law which doubles regional objectives and policies in the sphere of television and radio in Gagauzia. If necessary, a legislative initiative on amending and completing the current audiovisual legislation can be presented,” Irina Vlah suggested.
Another critical opinion on the version in which the law was adopted in second reading was voiced out by the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC). According to the BCC press release, its representatives believe that “the draft law intends to establish censorship on the audiovisual media from the territorial autonomy and to replace, contrary to the provisions of the legislation of Moldova, the powers of licensing, supervision, and control of the central public authorities and state bodies, which may endanger the sovereignty and integrity of the Republic of Moldova.”
According to legal procedures, an adopted local law must be signed by the governor of Gagauzia within 10 days. If the governor disagrees with the law adopted by the People’s Assembly, it shall be returned in order to make further amendments. Subsequently, if two thirds of all the members of the People’s Assembly have repeatedly voted for a local law, it is considered adopted and has to be signed by the Governor (Bashkan).
Therefore, in order for the law to be repeatedly voted, it would require the votes of at least 23 local MPs. Ecaterina Jecova, the local MP who is the co-author of the law, has told Media-azi that the law was supported by the votes of 20 local MPs at the initial voting held on November 10.
The law provides for several modifications to the funding of the company. According to it, the company's budget will amount to at least 2.5% of the total income of the Gagauz region. MPs also suggested creating a GRT marketing department. The document also provides for increasing the salary of the secretary of the regional public company’s Supervisory Board. According to the project, SB members will be paid 350 lei per meeting (the remuneration will include no more than three sessions per month).
The document stipulates that 20% of GRT’s audiovisual programs will be produced by local and national independent media, with the stated aim of ensuring pluralism of opinion. The amount of domestic production will be no less than 8 hours per day. At the same time, 50% of the total amount of the broadcast programs will be in the Gagauz language, whereas by 2022, it will reach at least 70%.
As to the composition of the SB, according to the draft law, it shall consist of two lawyers, two journalists, one economist, plus four other people representing the spheres of culture, sports, or education. In addition, the authors of the law suggest that the SB members elect only the general director of the company. Currently, the SB members also appoint their TV and radio editors.
