The Parliamentary Committee for Mass-Media Reconsidered the Draft Audiovisual Media Services Code and Recommended the Parliament to Maintain its Vote

On 7 October, the Committee for Culture, Education, Research, Youth, Sport and Mass-media reconsidered the draft Audiovisual Media Services Code, after President Igor Dodon refused to promulgate it. The specialised Committee recommended the Parliamentary plenary to maintain its vote on the draft law.

MP Vladimir Hotineanu, Chairman of the Committee, told for Media-azi.md that the MPs would reconfirm their vote during the plenary meeting of the Parliament, the most likely this week. He added that the members of the Parliamentary Committee did not change the text of the Code. Six MPs, i.e. the majority of those present at the meeting, voted for the Committee’s recommendation.
Vladimir Hotineanu considers that the head of the state didn’t promulgate this draft law because ‘he doesn’t want to protect the information space’. ‘He’s interested in promoting the policy of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Moldova’, stated Vladimir Hotineanu.

Note that on Friday, 2 November, President Igor Dodon submitted the Audiovisual Media Services Code to the Parliament for reconsideration. The head of the state was dissatisfied with the provisions allowing the transmission of information, analytical, political and military broadcasts only from the member states of the European Union, the US and Canada and the states that have ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television. The Russian Federation is not among the countries that have ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television.

The draft Audiovisual Media Services Code of the Republic of Moldova was developed by national and international experts, as well as representatives of the civil society within the Working Group on improvement of mass-media legislation.