The BCC Has Warned the TV Stations That Have Not Adjusted Their Audiovisual Services to the Needs of People with Hearing and Visual Impairments

Members of the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) have warned TV stations at a meeting on December 19 about the need to comply with the obligations concerning the access of people with hearing and visual impairments to broadcast program services. The BCC members decided to only give a warning, explaining their decision by the fact that this was the first monitoring of this kind.

According to the BCC decision on the access of hearing and visual impaired people to broadcast programs, starting with September 1, 2017 broadcasters are required to air daily newscasts between 17.00 and 23.00 in sign language or by simultaneous subtitling for people with hearing impairment, and by audible signal for visually impaired people.

In addition, major programs or their summaries, as well as emergency, security, or public health messages, should be broadcast in sign language or by subtitling. Broadcasters are required, according to this decision, to inform viewers by a visual symbol about the beginning of broadcasting of the programs that include these features.

Overall, 31 TV stations have been monitored to see if they comply with the decision. The monitoring results have confirmed that most broadcasters do not fully comply with the provisions of this decision.

Monitoring of broadcasters’ compliance with the rule of ensuring access to information to persons with special needs was the last action planned for the third quarter of this year in the National Action Plan for the implementation of the Moldova-EU Association Agreement in the media segment.

This monitoring was also debated at the presentation of the report on monitoring the National Action Plan (NAP) for the period of September - November 2017 in the media segment.

BCC member Olga Barbalata, present at the talks on the report, said that there is lack of sign language specialists in Moldova. She mentioned that, according to the National Association of the Deaf, which trains specialists in this field, there are currently only 17 people who can communicate information to the public through sign language on TV, and that this number of specialists is several times smaller than the number of broadcasters on the market.