Jurnal TV Refuses to Publish the Spots of PD and is Being Sued. What Arguments Does the TV Channel Have?

The Democratic Party (PD) sued Jurnal TV. PD members complain that the channel had refused to broadcast three video spots about the Republican Consultative Referendum. Jurnal TV rejects the accusations.

On 21 January, the Democratic Party submitted to the Chisinau Court of Law from Rascani sector, a complaint against the Jurnal TV channel invoking that the media outlet refused to broadcast three electoral spots of PD about the Republican Consultative Referendum of 24 February this year. The Democratic Party believes that the broadcaster thus violated the electoral legislation according to which the channel must offer equal conditions when providing airtime or advertising space for election publicity purposes.
According to the complaint submitted to Chisinau Court of Law, PD requires Jurnal TV to broadcast the spots of PDM without claiming any other damages from the channel.

Contacted by Media Azi to comment this refusal, Dumitru Misin, responsible for the coordination of the electoral activity of Jurnal TV, told us that the editorial office issued a statement in this respect. According to the channel, an advertising agency contacted the editorial office and asked, on behalf of PD, for airtime for the broadcast of several advertising clips promoting the consultative referendum. ‘We noted that the message contains elements of hidden electoral publicity for the Democratic Party, which is an election candidate for the Parliamentary Elections’, stated Jurnal TV.

According to the TV channel, the applicant was informed about the ‘impossibility to place the advertisements in question until 25 January 2019 and was assured that these will be broadcast beginning with the indicated date’.
PDM believes that the refusal of Jurnal TV to broadcast its spots is unjustified and claims to notify the Broadcasting Council about it.