AIP Report: Implementation of the action plan in the media segment is going on slowly

Association of Independent Press (AIP) presented on Wednesday, June 14, the results of the first monitoring report on realization of commitments in the media field, assumed by the authorities of R. of Moldova in the Action Plan for implementation of the Association Agreement R. of Moldova – European Union in the framework of Government Activity Program. The document presented contains a retrospective of implementation of the Action Plan for 2014-2016 and an evaluation of fulfillment of planned actions for the period March – May 2017 from the current National Action Plan (NAP), forecast for the years 2017-2019.
 
The experts contacted by IPA, Ion Bunduchi and Aneta Gonta, found that the actions planned for the period 2014-2016 in the media segment were mostly targeted at the audiovisual field and were not fully in line with the provisions of the Association Agreement. The actions planned for this period either have been partly carried out or have not been carried out. The impact of actions implementation did not reply effectively neither to real provisions of the Association Agreement, nor to creation and development needs of a democratic, pluralist and professional media system.

At the same time, while planning the actions for the next implementation period (2017-2019) the previous provisions have not been taken into account, and some irrelevant actions are repeated.

Ion Bunduchi pointed out that the European Union adopts annually many legislative acts in the media segment and “if we go with the same speed, I don’t know if we ever come to bring our legislation closer to the European regulatory framework”, the media expert said. Of the same opinion is Aneta Gonta who stated that “the implementation of the action plan is going on in a rhythm requiring acceleration”. 

The two experts came with certain recommendations following a quantitative and qualitative analysis. According to them, the National Action Plan, with regard to the media segment, shall be reviewed and amended so that the actions: “a)  cover the entire media field; b) are in full compliance with the provisions of the Association Agreement; c) don’t double the obligations of responsible institutions  dictated by legislation, d) are accurate, feasible and measurable. Performance indicators shall be revised in a manner that would take into account the real effects after the implementation of actions and not the actions themselves unable to produce an impact.  The rhythm of adequate implementation of appropriate and relevant actions for media development is to be accelerated.”   

Until March 2018, AIP will draft and make public another three quarterly monitoring reports, which will contain recommendations for authorities with the purpose to carry out more efficiently their commitments in the media field, assumed at European level. The next quarterly report will cover the period June – August 2017 and will be launched at the beginning of September.