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On 9 April, Broadcasting Council conducted a competition to appoint new members of the Supervisory Board (SB) of Teleradio-Moldova. While Tatiana Munteanu, the then candidate, was making a presentation on the financial independence of the institution, Dragos Vicol said that he wanted to joke: ‘I will tell a joke, to break the ice. Someone asked about the financial independence of television and you said it would be good to have it. The word ‘television’ [‘televiziunea’] and women are both of female gender. Both women and TV stations want to be financially independent. And if not all women manage to achieve this status, we want TV stations to at least strive for it’.
If some BC members smiled at the ‘joke’ of the Council Chair, then the reaction of some representatives of the PAS party and civil society was different.
Harsh reactions in the society
The first indignant comments regarding Vicol’s joke appeared on social media. Lawyer Dumitru Petru Sliusarenco regarded Dragos Vicol’s joke as ‘horrible humour’. ‘How can BC fight sexism and discrimination if it is led by people who promote these? This Chair should resign and do stand up’, the lawyer commented.
The lawyer Nadejda Hriptievschi also wrote on social media: ‘It is denigrating, derogatory and shameful for a person to make such statements, particularly publicly, and when holding such position! What kind of signal does he set to other officials? And how will BC perform its role of preventing and fighting the sexist speech in the audiovisual media services when its Chair sets such pace? The least Mr. Vicol could do now is admit he was wrong and make an urgent public appology. Sexist speech will not disappear as long as it is tolerated’.
‘In normal countries, such “specimens” resign before someone or... the law tells them to’, the psychologist Daniela Terzi-Barbarosie also commented online.
Newsmaker.md wrote that the advocate for gender equality Alina Andronache would have said that she would file a complaint against Dragos Vicol with the Council for Preventing and Eliminating Discrimination and Ensuring Equality.
Media-azi tried to find out if she managed to file this complaint, but Alina Andronache did not answer the phone.
Women from political parties did not hesitate to comment on as well. Doina Gherman – the MP from the PAS faction, considers Vicol’s joke to be misogynistic. The Women’s Organisation of PAS expresses ‘puzzlement and concern’ towards statements of the Chair of the Broadcasting Council, asking Dragos Vicol ‘to apologise publicly for this tawdry joke. Otherwise, we will demand his resignation’.
Dragos Vicol is puzzled
Contacted by Media-azi.md to comment on these accusations, Dragos Vicol, in his turn, seemed puzzled: ‘I was asked to apologise or to resign... If people who believe that my message was marked by sexism or misogyny think that in the Republic of Moldova women are financially independent, then I will apologise... There are enough reports showing that due to the lack of the financial perspective and climate of trust, many women live with their violent husbands, with husbands who do not support their families, only to gain such financial independence. I said that unfortunately, in the
Republic of Moldova not all women (I did not say “none”) are financially independent’, Vicol said.
To prove that his ‘joke’ did not contain the allegations he is accused of, BC Chair added that 80-90% of Council’s employees were women and that he hired them on the grounds of professionalism rather than their gender. Dragos Vicol also reminded that during that meeting, following the results of the competition, three female members of SB were appointed on the basis of their management skills as well.
Dragos Vicol told us that he was ready to meet with people who were offended by his statements at the Council and to discuss what happened.
