Ren Moldova, sanctioned for broadcasting news in a indistinguishable sign language

The Broadcast Coordinating Council (BCC) imposed a fine of MDL 5,000 in a public hearing on 26 March 2018, on the television channel Ren Moldova for broadcasting sign language translations in a language that is not understood by subject-matter specialists. The sanction was imposed after the Moldovan Deaf Association monitored, at the request of the BCC, several newscasts and reached this conclusion.

BCC was notified by a citizen, Margarita Poretcaia, who pointed out the poor quality of the sign language interpretation of the Ren Moldova newscasts.  Moreover, she stated that the square enclosing the image of the interpreter is too small for the gestures to be recognized and compared it to a robot “which makes senseless gestures".

The results of the BCC monitoring confirmed that the square enclosing the interpreter is really small. Also, the BCC reached out to the Deaf Association to comment on the quality of interpreting. ‘The hand gestures and lips movement do not correspond to the text of the spoken information; the sign language is totally incomprehensible on TV and is different from the sign language used in the Republic of Moldova. None of the sign language experts managed to translate what the "interpreter" on TV was conveying’, stated the analysis of the Deaf Association.

The management of Ren Moldova stated in a letter to the BCC that it was not their problem, but possibly there was a problem with the TV set of the person who notified the Council, and that until that moment no viewer had complained about the sign language interpretation of the news.

Media-azi.md has previously written about the shortage of sign language interpreters in Moldova.
According to the Deaf Association data, there are about 5,000 people with hearing deficiencies in the Republic of Moldova and only 17 specialists licensed in this field.

The data provided to us by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research show that 164 children with hearing impairments are enrolled in the country's mainstream educational institutions, while other 138 children are enrolled in special educational institutions for children with hearing deficiencies, where they are assisted by three sign language specialists and 16 educational psychologists.

The ‘Ion Creanga’ State Pedagogical University is responsible for the first cycle (bachelor’s degree) training of sign language specialists in the Special Psycho-pedagogy specialization, as well as during master programs ‘Speech Therapy and Alternative Communication. Sign Language and Braille system’.

However, the professors of this department admitted that the number of hours is not enough for students to learn this language effectively.