The BCC Approved the Transfer of the TV8 Broadcast License. Natalia Morari: “We Are Shocked!”

The Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) approved at the meeting on December 14, after several months of postponement, the request to transfer the broadcast license for the television station TV8 from the company Analitic Media Group to the Media Alternativa Public Association. Representatives of TV8 believe that the decision would not have been possible if this case did not reach development partners.

Initially, the agenda for the meeting of December 14, 2017, published on the BCC website, did not include the issue of examining the request to transfer the TV8 broadcast license. According to Lilia Gutu, consultant of the Communication and Public Relations Department of the BCC, the matter was added to the agenda later.

Six members of the BCC – chairman Dragos Vicol, Artur Cozma, Iurie Colesnic, Olga Gututui, Olga Barbalata, and the new member, Veronica Cojocaru, – attended the meeting and voted unanimously. The six votes were sufficient to approve the transfer.

Asked by Media-azi.md to comment on BCC’s decision, Natalia Morari, TV8 journalist and chairman of Media Alternativa, the organization that received the broadcast license of the above-mentioned station, said that she did not expect such a change in the BCC’s position, “after more than four months of delays and references to existing litigation.” Morari believes this has happened “due to pressure from development partners.”

Previously, the BCC postponed the transfer of the broadcast license for TV8 from Analitic Media Group to Media Alternativa on the grounds that some copyright protection organizations sued the company that currently manages the TV station.

According to the latest press releases of the BCC, the transfer was conditional on a final court decision in the lawsuit initiated by several copyright protection organizations against Analitic Media Group.