The Audiovisual Media Services Code Passed in Final Reading. MPs Came up with New Amendments Regarding the Funding and the Volume of Local Programs

The Parliament passed the Draft Code of Audiovisual Media Services in the final reading, on Thursday, 18 October. It contains some corrections concerning the funding ‘Teleradio Moldova’ and Broadcasting Council and the volume of local audiovisual programs. The document was adopted without debating it.

The initial draft envisaged that the national public provider of media service (Teleradio-Moldova) would receive annually state budget allocations in the amount of 0.9% of the state budget and the Broadcasting Council - 0.03%.
However, the document passed in final reading does not provide for a fixed amount from the state budget to be received by the two institutions. Budget allocations will be set annually and will represent ‘the volume of the previous year, indexed with the consumer price index of the last budget year’. That is, the two budgets will be increased or reduced according to the price development during the previous year.
At the same time, the volume of local audiovisual programs that public broadcasting TV and radio stations have to broadcast daily is reduced, because the provisions passed in the second reading were almost impossible to accomplish, according to the chairman of the specialised Parliamentary Committee, Vladimir Hotineanu.

Thus, national public providers will have to broadcast at least 12 hours of audiovisual programs, compared to 14 hours, according to the previous provisions, and the regional providers - 10 hours, compared to 12 as initially set.
The Audiovisual Media Services Code was passed in the second reading on 26 July. It regulates the editorial independence, protection of national broadcasting environment and transparency of media ownership.
For instance, the document states that ‘an individual may be the beneficial owner of maximum two generalist television services and/or news services, as well as of maximum two thematic television services’.

At the same time, authors foresaw certain limits of audience share to prevent media domination on the market. In particular, the draft Code provides that a beneficial owner may not hold a share of more than 35% of the audience, i.e. no one beneficial owner may have a dominant position in shaping public opinion.

At the beginning of July, the European Parliament passed a resolution on political situation in the Republic of Moldova, in which  it expressed its concerns about the fact that independent, local and opposition mass-media will encounter difficulties in creating domestic mandatory content due to the lack of resources. The chairman of Parliamentary Committee for Mass-Media, Vladimir Hotineanu, declared for Media-azi.md that related legislative framework, which will allow developing domestic television product, was ready at that time.
The Audiovisual Media Services Code of the Republic of Moldova was developed by national and international experts, as well as representatives of the civil society in the Working Group on improvement of mass-media legislation. The new law will replace the Broadcasting Code, adopted in 2006 and subsequently amended repeatedly through multiple amendments.