Three Key Moments that Marked the Moldovan Information Space in 2018

The struggle with foreign propaganda resulted in fines of tens of thousands of MDL for the TV channels that violated the ‘Anti-Propaganda’ Law, but didn’t solve the problem of domestic propaganda; the enlargement of the media landscape in the audiovisual field, with the emergence of new TV channels affiliated with politicians, didn’t lead to media pluralism, but intensified media concentration; the amendments to seven laws drafted by the Parliamentary Group for the Improvement of Media Law didn’t reach the plenary agenda of MPs who preferred to adopt the new Law on Personal Data Protection in the first reading – are the key moments that marked the information space in the leaving year. 

One Year Under the Sign of the Anti-Propaganda Struggle
The Law Supplementing the Broadcasting Code of the Republic of Moldova with norms meant to ensure information security, known as the ‘Anti-Propaganda’ Law, was published into the Official Gazette on 12 January 2018 and entered into force on 12 February. According to the new provisions, the broadcasters were prohibited to broadcast/rebroadcast TV and radio programs with informative, analytical-informative, military, and political content which is not produced in the EU Member States, the US, Canada, as well as in the states that have not ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television.
Violations of the law were fined between MDL 40,000 and 70,000, while for repeated violations – between MDL 70,000 and 100,000. Also, following the gradual application of sanctions, the withdrawal of one’s broadcast license was also possible.
In February 2018, the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) fined the RTR Moldova TV channel with MDL 55,000 for broadcasting informative programs from the Russian Federation. In May, the same TV channel was fined with MDL 85,000 for broadcasting Moscow Victory Day Parade. At the request of a civic organisation, the TV channel PRIME TV was also fined with MDL 70,000 for violating this law.
However, TV channels have tried different ways to avoid complying with the law. The media researcher Victor Gotisan, commented for Media-azi.md that the media outlets that were rebroadcasting the content produced in the Russian Federation stopped broadcasting the finable content and repacked it into what they later called ‘own content’. The media expert Petru Macovei also noted that after the adoption of the law, ‘the Russian propaganda lasts, it only took the shape of local product.’
‘Foreign propaganda doesn’t disappear, it just ‘turns’ into domestic propaganda’, Victor Gotisan also highlighted. Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Electronic Press Association, Ion Bunduchi, mentioned also in a comment on our portal that ‘by eliminating foreign propaganda, the domestic propaganda will increase’.

Media Concentration
The concentration of the broadcast media, especially in the regions, is another phenomenon media experts noticed. Hence, a TV channel affiliated with the ruling Democratic Party (PD) opened, in April this year, a local studio in Nisporeni. It’s about Canal 2 TV channel, which previously belonged to the PD Chair Vladimir Plahotniuc, and currently belongs to his political advisor Oleg Cristal.
PRIME TV, PUBLIKA TV, CANAL 2, CANAL 3 and CTC MEGA are also in PD’s ‘pocket’.
Socialists’ holding – NTV Moldova and ACCENT TV channels – monopolised another part of the media market. In October, after watching NTV Moldova newscasts, the researcher Aneta Gonta noticed that citizens had limited access to the national socio-political life spectrum, the latter having the impression that in the Republic of Moldova there is only one active political party, with opinions, attitudes and actions.
The one who brought the maximum concentration in 2018 was the mayor of Orhei, Ilan Sor, to whom are affiliated the new Orhei TV and Central TV channels, moderated by people who are loyal and close to him. The media expert Petru Macovei was convinced that the target of these new TV channels was the Parliamentary Elections from the beginning of the next year. ‘This whole story tells us nothing new. Other existing holdings – the one owned by Mr Plahotniuc and the one owned by Mr Dodon, have expanded recently, targeting, most certainly, the Parliamentary Elections. The holding of Mr. Plahotniuc has established several sub-editorial offices in charge of promoting future candidates running in the first-past-the-post constituencies’, Petru Macovei said.
The researcher Aneta Gonta warned that the danger of media concentration is to limit pluralism of opinion by repeating a single point of view on several platforms, which ‘distorts the free market of ideas, annihilates the critical spirit, and, eventually, only imitates democracy’.

 ‘A Spike’ from the Governors... the Postponement of Draft Laws Vital for Journalists
MPs have previously promised to adopt the amendments to seven draft laws, developed within the Parliamentary Group for the Improvement of Media Law, but they remained out of their attention. Hence, the draft that was to facilitate journalists’ access to information, and the Law on Advertising, which was not reviewed in the final reading, were not part of the list of adopted laws. Instead, the draft Law on the Protection of Personal Data was voted in the first reading during the plenary session. It was criticized by the civil society and considered abusive and restrictive in relation to journalists.
According to lawyer Tatiana Puiu, Representative of Freedom House in Moldova, this draft law ‘does not envisage any exceptions for the media in terms of processing personal data’, and some of its provisions contradict the Law on Access to Information and the Law on Freedom of Expression.