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Monthly Bulletin, October 2019
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The draft law developed by the State Chancellery, which provides free access for journalists to a number of databases, was approved by the Executive branch. Note that the document kept the provision which states that media outlets will have to be registered as personal data operators in order to have free access to databases. Note that, in the last weeks since the Government announced that it was working on such a draft law, several opinions were made public criticizing the initiative to condition the free access to databases on the need to have media outlets registered as personal data operators. The legislative initiative was submitted and registered with the Parliament for review.
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According to certain media experts, by reducing the number of channels monitored during the October election campaign down to only 4 TV channels with national coverage (Moldova 1, Moldova 2, Prime TV and Canal 2), the Broadcasting Council would protect certain broadcasters affiliated to the Socialists (currently a governing party). Asked by Media-azi.md to comment on the Council’s decision, media researcher Victor Gotisan said that ‘the BC is slipping from a “democratic political hand” to a “socialist one,” thus occurring the phenomenon of “political reconfiguration in the media.” Ion Bunduchi, Executive Director of the Electronic Press Association (APEL), was also stunned by the BC decision, noting that, previously, the monitoring showed that the public TV channels behaved fairly in the election campaign, which cannot be said about the broadcasters suspected of political partisanship – Accent TV, NTV Moldova and others that remained outside the monitoring.
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During its meeting held on October 21, the Broadcasting Council (BC) approved the request of Accent TV channel, affiliated with PSRM, to change its name to “Primul in Moldova” translating to “First in Moldova” on the ground that it signed a contract to rebroadcast ‘Pervii Kanal’ channel from Moscow. Stanislav Vijga, Accent TV manager, announced during the meeting that the broadcaster signed the contract with ‘Pervii Kanal’ TV channel and developed the broadcasting grid. The decision was unanimously approved by six members of the BC attending the meeting. Note that PRIME TV channel of Moldova, owned by the former leader of the Democratic Party Vlad Plahotniuc, is currently rebroadcasting the content of “Pervii Kanal.” A BC member, Lidia Viziru is concerned that the same “Pervii Kanal” material will be rebroadcast by two broadcasters, PRIME TV and formerly known Accent TV. Viziru was also concerned whether the channel would abide by the legal provisions that state 50% of television services and audiovisual programs bought from abroad must come from the EU Member States and/or third states participatory in the European Convention on Transfrontier Television. |
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According to Petru Macovei, Executive Director of the Independent Press Association, the decision of the Broadcasting Council (BC) to grant Accent TV (newly renamed ‘Primul in Moldova’) the right to rebroadcast the content of ‘Pervii Kanal’, will make things worse on the broadcasting market in Moldova, and the BC is to blame since it became a passive stakeholder in this situation. Asked by the Media-azi.md portal of the Independent Journalism Center to comment on BC decision, Macovei believed that “President Igor Dodon is strengthening his media holding with the aid of the Broadcasting Council.” At the same time, according to the advertising professionals, the negative impact will be felt on this market too, especially when it comes to budget redistribution between the advertising houses.
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On October 15, the Gagauz People’s Assembly appointed six of the nine members of the Supervisory Board (SB) of the regional public media service provider Gagauziya Radio Televizionu (GRT) Company, according to Nokta.md. The applications of the other three members are to be discussed during the next meeting. The former Supervisory Board, chaired by Igor Ianak, was dismissed on July 30, 2019, by the People’s Assembly, on the grounds that it became dysfunctional. Local analysts say that the regional public TV broadcaster enjoys popularity among authorities and for this reason GRT has always been the target of political pressure to remain loyal to the government.
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Full information about the data of legal entities and individuals with domain names managed by the state-owned enterprise MoldData will be available to the public “in the near future.” Legal entities and individuals include government officials, owners of news sites and other Moldovan national companies. The institution responded that MoldData would soon be available to be accessed by the public after a request for information was made by Media-azi.md. Previously, data about legal entities and individuals was available via the WHOIS service, which offered restricted access as it only provided “.md” domain holders’ name, addresses, and contact details. According to MoldDate, public access to the WHOIS database was restricted due to new EU requirements, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR 2016/679). These new requirements forced the company to adapt its internal procedures as those who held “.md” domains were individuals both from the Republic of Moldova as well individuals from abroad – including the EU. When asked by Media-azi.md when such data would be again accessible to the general public, MoldData responded that it aims to make necessary changes in the near future so that data regarding legal persons is available via the WHOIS service. Most likely this would happen after the enterprise is absorbed by the public institution Information Technology and Cyber Security Service (ITCSS), stated MoldData in its reply. |
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The company SC ‘Miraza’ SRL, the owner of Unimedia.info news website, has changed its sole shareholder. Instead of Cristian Jardan, who has owned and managed the company for the last five years, the company is going to be taken over by journalist Olesea Banari. The media manager, Jardan, said that the website requires investments for development, which he didn’t have, and this is why they took this decision. Olesea Banari, in turn, stated she would invest in the quality of journalistic products and promised many “surprises.” “We will continue to develop the first news website in Moldova, so that it informs the readers correctly, impartially and timely,” stated Olesea Banari. Unimedia.info was launched in 2005 by Dumitru Ciorici, Tudor Darie and brothers Vasile and Sergiu Galusca, and became popular especially after the protests of April 2009, due to its live coverage of those events. |
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During a meeting held on October 4, the Broadcasting Council (BC) granted a broadcast license for Canal 5, owned by Media Content Distribution. The company is managed by Lilian Bustiuc, who previously managed the company TELEFE M International (liquidated), founded by OTIV PRIME B.V., and was registered at the same address as the holding company of the former Democratic leader Vlad Plahotniuc. Canal 5 will be a generalist channel and will rebroadcast the programs of Channel Five, – Piatyi Kanal from Russia. BC member Olga Gututui asked whether the Media Content Distribution had anything in common with “the largest media holding company in Moldova,” since it had the same residential address as Plahotniuc’s holding, i.e. Chisinau, 1 Ghioceilor Street. According to Bustiuc, the company has this address “in order to be closer to the production process.” |
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In just a few months since it appeared, the anonymous website Scheme.md managed to publish a number of exclusive materials about public figures such as the former Prime Minister, Iurie Leanca, the former Mayor of Balti and Chair of ‘Partidul Nostru’ Party, Renato Usatii, the Head of the Legal Resources Center of Moldova, Vlad Gribincea, and other people known by the general public in Moldova. Once the scandal materials were published, various assumptions regarding the “shadow owners” of the website and the political interests included when publishing these materials in a public space. As Scheme.md is not the only anonymous website in Moldova, the IJC Media-azi.md portal tried to broadly address the phenomenon and to find out from the representatives of the Press Council and of other media organizations why the websites pretending to be media outlets prefer to act anonymously, and to what extent the materials they release can be considered “media-outlet-worthy” by definition.
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A member of the Broadcasting Council (BC) Veronica Cojocaru announced her resignation on October 11 as she believes BC Chair Dragos Vicol would poorly manage the Council’s work. At the same meeting, BC member Corneliu Mihalache proposed to elect a new Chair of the Council in place of Vicol. Dragos Vicol announced that he would consult with the Parliamentary Committee for Mass-media on this matter and suspended the meeting, without voting the proposals of the BC members. Note that at this October 11 meeting, the BC was going to examine concerns of members Veronica Cojocaru and Olga Gututui, who requested for the monitoring of the election campaigns of 11 TV channels, including the four national channels.
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With a delay of three months, the Supervisory Board (SB) announced on Tuesday, October 15, a call for filling the position of Executive Director of ‘Teleradio-Moldova’ Public Company (TRM). According to the law, this application period was supposed to take place in the first half of 2019. Both the Broadcasting Council and the Parliamentary Committee for Mass-media found that the SB was lagging behind with the contest. According to Petru Macovei, Executive Director of the Association of Independent Press (API), this delay “proves the inefficiency of the current SB membership.” Whoever gets selected for the position of Executive Director will have to receive at least 2/3 votes of the total number of SB members. The BC has previously voted for a proposal to dismiss all the members of the SB for their inefficient implementation of appointing the Executive Director. Nicolae Spataru, the SB chair, however, regarded this proposal for this decision to be unlawful.
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In the election campaign of October 2019, the Independent Journalism Center monitored ten TV channels (Moldova 1, Prime TV, Publika TV, Jurnal TV, NTV Moldova, RTR Moldova, TV 8, Pro TV, Accent TV and Central Television) from September 20 – October 19 2019, and released four weekly monitoring reports. The political partisanship and the information from a single source were the main violations found by the monitors at the TV channels affiliated to politicians. The Central Television favored the representatives of ‘Sor’ Political Party, slightly disfavouring Ion Ceban (PSRM) and Andrei Nastase (ACUM/PAS/PPDA); NTV Moldova and Accent TV, affiliated to socialists, promoted massively Ion Ceban, the PSRM candidate, disfavoring his rival Andrei Nastase. Although Prime TV and Publika TV (who belong to former PD leader Vlad Plahotniuc) did not favor massively a certain election candidate disfavoured the candidate of ACUM/PAS/PPDA Block, Andrei Nastase. The public broadcaster Moldova 1, Pro TV and TV 8, had a fair behavior, without favoring or disfavouring any election candidate. After the launch of each weekly monitoring report, the IJC submitted reports to the Broadcasting Council, requesting that the broadcasting regulator monitor the TV channels which committed violations while covering the election campaign and to sanction them according to the law in force.
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The Broadcasting Council (BC) decided to monitor only six broadcasting media service providers in the current election campaign – Moldova 1, Moldova 2, Prime TV, Canal 2 TV channels and Radio Moldova and Radio Moldova Youth radio stations. This is the first time BC has only selected six broadcasting media services. Dragos Vicol, the BC Chair, explained that he chose this formula in order to comply with the Electoral Code, which states that the regulator should submit reports on monitoring of coverage of elections by national broadcasters to the Central Electoral Code (CEC). BC members Veronica Cojocaru and Olga Gututui criticized Vicol’s initiative, took note of the issue and requested the monitoring of 16 TV channels, as done in previous Moldovan elections.
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On October 8, the Broadcasting Council released the first monitoring report, where it didn’t sanction, but only warned the six broadcasters – Moldova 1, Moldova 2, Prime, Canal 2, Radio Moldova and Radio Moldova Youth. According to the report, the most frequent violation is the failure to ensure the right to reply, especially regarding channels like Prime and Canal 2 TV. During the same meeting, certain BC members were displeased that the broadcasting regulator did not monitor other TV channels covering the election in addition to the six broadcasters. Corneliu Mihalache stated that the monitoring of only six TV channels could be called selective, limited and not reflecting the whole situation in the media. BC member Veronica Cojocaru recalled that she submitted a notification to the Council’s Chancellery regarding the monitoring of more channels and requested the Monitoring Directorate to review it.
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During its meeting held on Friday, October 11, the Parliamentary Committee for Mass-media examined how the BC monitors the behavior of the media service providers in the current election campaign. Dragos Vicol, BC Chair, mentioned that the Council was notified by the Independent Journalism Centre (IJC) which requested the monitoring and sanctioning of the TV channels that involved in political partisanship in the election campaign. According to Vicol, favoring or disfavoring one or another candidate “does not fall under any article of the Audiovisual Media Services Code,” therefore, the BC cannot sanction the TV channels that committed such violations. Contacted by Media-azi.md, the Director of the Electronic Press Association, Ion Bunduchi, one of the authors of the new Audiovisual Media Services Code, highlighted that it is untrue and that both the Audiovisual Media Services Code and the Electoral Code contain provisions “to sanction anyone who infringes the law.” According to the expert, the BC should consider sanctioning media service providers who have violated the Codes, as in accordance with the law.
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