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Recently, the document prepared by the Ministry of Justice was proposed for assessment and public consultation at a meeting of general secretaries, and was also sent to the Broadcasting Council. According to the initiative, the MoJ is to be the institution responsible for promoting state policy in the field of audiovisual media services and print media. The authors of the document note that at the governmental level there is currently no central body to ensure the implementation of the relevant governmental policy, although the Government is one of the main actors in the drafting of legislation and also has the right to legislative initiative.
The BC examined the document at its public meeting on May 27. BC officials mentioned that the BC is “the guarantor of public interest in the audiovisual sector and has the mission to contribute to the development of audiovisual media services.” Taking this into account, the BC proposed amending the MoJ’s document by reformulating the phrase “the field of audiovisual media services and print media,” so as not to overlap the areas of activity of the two institutions.
The BC member Iulian Rosca noted that this opinion “is as good as a rejection.” He also criticized the MoJ’s document. “I think this project has no right to exist. It generally contradicts the principles that Moldova assumed in the process of acceding to European practices. Obviously, the regulator for audiovisual media services is not a decoration in the system of the state’s public administration system, but the state has established this authority with a special legal status. In addition to being independent from all public authorities in the state’s administrative system and having certain functions, not only those of supervision and enforcement of legislation, but also of regulation, the BC now got the capacity to regulate the respective field, establish certain standards, develop policies in this field, and not to arrogate this right to the ministry. (…) The ministry would have a tangential nature,” Iulian Rosca said at the meeting.
In his opinion, the MoJ is not currently deprived of the right to carry out certain interventions in the media sector, but not regarding policies, because “this is still the prerogative of the Council.”
Other members did not want to comment on the MoJ’s proposal, with the exception of Tatiana Buraga, who said that she agreed with Iulian Rosca.
Thus, the BC members voted unanimously to approve the opinion in the formulation that “is as good as a rejection” of the document.
Media Azi previously wrote that the Government has been two years behind the expected deadline in the development of the program of measures for the implementation of the National Concept for Media Development, having identified so far only the authority in charge of the media sector – the Ministry of Justice.
Several institutions should issue opinions regarding this document: the State Chancellery; the Ministry of Finance; the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure; the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research; the Broadcasting Council; the National Anticorruption Center; the Independent Press Association.
