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The Parliament announced a competition for the selection of civil society’s candidates for membership in the Supervisory and Development Board of TRM

08 November 2021
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The Parliament announced a competition for the selection of civil society’s candidates for membership in the Supervisory and Development Board (SDB) of the Teleradio-Moldova (TRM) company. It happened after last week MPs voted in final reading for the draft law that provides for the return of the public media service provider under parliamentary control.

According to the amendments made to the Code of Audiovisual Media Services, the Supervisory and Development Board (new name of the TRM’s supervisory body) is made up of seven members instead of nine, four of whom are to be members of civil society. They are to be selected after the term of office of the current members ended on November 5, with the publication in the Official Gazette of the promulgation decree and the law for amending the Code.

Candidates must meet a number of requirements, including an experience of at least five years in one of the fields of journalism, media, culture, cinema, law, public relations, international relations, financial management and enterprise management, information and communication technology, engineering, as well as academic work. At the same time, those who want to hold a seat in the SDB cannot be members of any party, cannot be politically affiliated, cannot have criminal record and must confirm their impeccable reputation.

The deadline for submission of applications is November 12.

The other three members of the SDB are to be proposed by parliamentary factions, subject to proportional representation of the majority and the opposition. 

MPs voted for the return of Teleradio-Moldova under parliamentary control on November 4.

A day earlier, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) expressed concern about the initiative. Its reaction was expressed in an open letter from the EBU Director General Noel Curran to Liliana Nicolaescu-Onofrei, the head of the Parliamentary Commission for Culture, Education, Research, Youth, Sports and the Media.

Earlier, several media NGOs also expressed concern that the new provisions would allow broadcasting to be subordinated to the political factor.