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Nicolae Spataru, Violeta Cojocaru, Marina Turcan, Daniela Mitelea, Veaceslav Vlad, Alexandru Vasilachi and Tatiana Munteanu voted for Olga Bordeianu.
The candidate Ion Terguta received the vote of the SB member Larisa Calugaru, and Cornelia Stefoglu received no votes.
The meeting was predictable. The three candidates presented, one at a time, their draft proposals.
Three candidates for the general manager position of TRM. Ion Terguță, Cornelia Stefoglu and Olga Bordeianu (from left to right).
Ion Terguta mentioned that Teleradio-Moldova Company was under political pressure. His draft proposal included the set up of a joint department of TV, radio and multimedia editorial offices in order to reduce the company’s expenses. Terguta added that TRM was not competitive on the media market since it lagged behind in terms of technology. He claimed that TRM employees needed to be trained according to other principles, which would match the current media requirements. Also, he advocated for TRM’s right to broadcast paid advertising (this right is no longer stipulated in the Audiovisual Media Services Code). In his opinion, Moldova would need a TV channel that would broadcast news 24 hours a day, in order to reduce the manipulation and misinformation.
Cornelia Stefoglu said that she conducted a scientific research about Teleradio-Moldova Company and also agreed that the editorial offices need to be unified. Also, she said that she wanted to strengthen the creative forces throughout the country and hire more young people. Cornelia Stefoglu added that she wanted to make the job descriptions of the employees clearer. When asked by the member Violeta Cojocaru about the duties included in the job description of the Executive Director, Cornelia Stefoglu paused, but she was helped by Olga Bordeianu who added: gathers the Management Committee, signs orders, etc.
The last candidate heard by SB members was Olga Bordeianu. She had a Power Point presentation with statistics in relation to 2015, when she took over the leadership of the company. According to Olga Bordeianu, compared to the private media, the public broadcaster would have other values and did not focus on profit, but on citizen interest and on impact. She also advocated for the creation of a joint newsroom and announced that a project worth about EUR 2.5 million was already developed for this purpose. Bordeianu added that the company faced a staff shortage and that the labour market lacked professionals. She said she would focus on digital transformation, continuous training and professional development, media content production and internal managerial control.
Ion Terguta qualified the presentation of Olga Bordeianu as ‘a Report to the SB’, and not as a draft proposal, as stated in the contest Regulation. According to him, the candidates did not compete on equal terms as they did not have access to the statistics Olga Bordeianu used. In her turn, Olga Bordeianu replied that she presented both the performances that she achieved as the head of the Company, and her future intentions.
He reminded that TRM ignored the suggestions of certain MPs and of a part of the civil society, according to which, it would have been right to elect a new SB, that would further appoint the Executive Director of Teleradio-Moldova.
The media researcher also criticized the TRM’s development indicators, noting that Moldova 1 public broadcaster, despite its national coverage, lost the popularity it had once. ‘Though the monitoring reports of Moldova 1 and Radio Moldova show an improvement in terms of editorial activity and ethical issues, Moldova 1 had also many gaps over the last three years, which confirmed the fact that when “someone” needs this and has influence, she or he can influence this media outlet’, outlined Gotisan.
The media researcher believes that
‘TRM is likely to become again a media outlet subordinated to those in power and PSRM, which strengthens its positions on the Moldovan media market’.
The Executive Director of Teleradio-Moldova Public Company is appointed by the Supervisory Board for a seven-year term, which cannot be renewed, according to the Audiovisual Media Services Code. Note that according to the law, SB had to organise this contest in the first half of 2019, and the Broadcasting Council voted to dismiss the current membership of the TRM SC, including due to its failure to organise the contest for the election of TRM Executive Director.
