New members of the Supervisory Board and their plans for Teleradio-Moldova

Two other competitors, former MP Nae-Simion Pleșca and director Nicolae Scorpan did not accumulate the necessary number of votes to obtain these positions.

PROFESSOR AND FORMER AMBASSADOR VICTOR BORȘEVICI: “I DIDN’T COME FOR MONEY”

The first candidate according to the list was a professor and publicist Victor Borșevici. In his speech, he mentioned that the key reason for aspiring to the position of member in the SB are information security issues faced by Moldova.

During the debates, Borșevici noted that he does not aspire to the position for financial reasons, saying, “I don’t need money, I have everything. I came here for one thing: I am a university professor and I helped promote about 200 of my students in their lives, and I understand that the future of our country is the problem of youth, and if we do not work at it, then I came here for nothing if no one is interested in this.”

Victor Borșevici holds a Ph.D. in technical sciences and leads the Chisinau branch of the International Informatization Academy – “a Canadian-based public association specializing in the promotion of information technology. In Moldova, this association is led by Victor Borşevici, former ambassador of the Republic of Moldova to China during the communist period [2002-2006, editor’s note], well-known follower of ‘moldovenism’. Although it militates for the development of information technologies, the Chisinau branch of this ‘Academy’ does not have a website,” noted  Ziarul de Gardă in 2015. 

ALEXANDRU VERȘININ, FROM MESSAGES SENT TO THE MOON, TO PLANS FOR TRM

The second candidate and winner of the competition is the businessman Alexandr Verșinin, who expressed willingness to modernize Teleradio-Moldova so that the young generation would be interested in the products of the public company. In his opinion, the subsidies that Teleradio-Moldova receives from the country’s budget could be used much more efficiently.

Verșinin criticized the activity of the current administration, being warned by the BC chairperson to refrain from attacks. “I would ask them every day how it is possible, having 150 million lei as subvention from the national budget, to have a television that we can’t rightfully call Moldova 1, but, according to the rating, Moldova 10, Moldova 20, etc.? How, with 150 million lei, three radio stations are based in one building – of I don’t know how many floors, – but the result is one – the money is wasted and the quantitative and qualitative indicators are not up to par. I have the impression that the top management has only one goal – to waste this money,” the candidate insisted.

He recalled that the ratings of private and low-budget media outlets are much higher and noted that the TRM website is not user-friendly. The new SB member claims that he used to work in a company with about 800 employees and considers that he knows how things should be done at TRM to change it for the better.

The third winner, Dumitru Roibu, stressed during the presentation of his project that he is working on his doctoral thesis in the field of good governance. According to him, the topic of the thesis focuses on the activity within the Supervisory Board of TRM, because it is related to the management of public resources.

He also emphasized the need to expand TRM online: “There has been a lot of talk about young people, and it is important because television in particular needs to be promoted, since everyone is moving online and both we, as the future Council, and the TV station must take this into account and cover that segment of activity since one thing does not exclude the other.” Roibu specified that an additional source of income for the public company could be obtained by capitalizing on the archive held by TRM.

BC member Artur Cozma asked him how he would manage the conflicts that might arise in the context of his visions, alluding to the promotion of the pro-Moldovan ideology. “It is a sensitive subject because we enter the area of ​​individual interpretations and preferences, which certainly cannot be extrapolated to public institutions. As it is a public institution, starting from its mission, and taking into account the fact that it involves different people, we have to present opinions and give people the opportunity to form their own visions and opinions freely, based on the materials presented. There can be no forcing or imposing certain opinions,” commented Dumitru Roibu.