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At the meeting held on 26th February, the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) fined the RTR Moldova TV channel with MDL 50,000 for violating the provisions of broadcasting informative programs from the Russian Federation. The representatives of RTR Moldova disagree with the BCC’s decision and claim that those news was made in Chisinau using the information provided by the Russian partner TV channels.
The BCC member, Olga Barbalata, requested to monitor urgently the RTR Moldova TV channel over the course of a few days. Following the monitoring of the newscasts broadcast on this TV channel during 14-23 February 2018, the specialised division found that RTR Moldova broadcast the news of the Russian TV channel, Rossia 1, at the international news category.
‘In terms of its duration and content, the news made by Rossia 1 was fully broadcast by the local TV channel RTR Moldova. Moreover, the comments of the RTR Moldova presenter were identical to the introductions of the newscasts presenters from the Rossia 1 TV channel. The journalistic materials produced by the Russian TV channel Rossia 1 and broadcast by RTR Moldova focused generally on topics related to the Russia’s national and international political, cultural, social, economic, military, sports, arts and other aspects, and were presented mainly in a positive context’, said Elena Crismaru, Deputy Head of the General Division for Licensing, Authorisation, and Monitoring.
She added that every newscast, broadcast at RTR Moldova over that period, included from six to ten news produced by Rossia 1, constituting from 28% to 41% of the total volume of the TV Show.
Olga Barbalata also called for the representative of RTR Moldova TV channel to be present at the meeting examining this issue.
The Director of RTR Moldova TV channel, Evgheni Sergheev, explained that the VGTRK media holding is one of the founders of the TV channel he manages and that the Moldovan broadcaster has concluded contract on purchasing media content from the Russian Federation. He added that the news is technically made in Chisinau and presented by local presenters. Mr Sergeev also said that the new amendments to the Law on Broadcasting provide for the broadcasting of foreign television programs and that the news containing foreign content from countries that are not mentioned in the Code do not fall under the law.
In his turn, the BCC President, Dragos Vicol, believes that the administration of RTR Moldova tricked in this case and found a loophole to broadcast TV programs on various topics, including military, which are made in the countries that are not on the list provided by the Anti-Propaganda Law in a "subversive" way.
According to ratings, RTR Moldova is one of the most watched Moldovan TV channels.
