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On Wednesday, 19 March, the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) issued a public warning at a public meeting to stations Jurnal TV and Accent TV for failure to comply with pluralism of opinions and the principle of informing from several sources.
According to the Report on the monitoring of televisions complying with the principle of social and political balance, neutrality and objectivity in informative programs, Accent TV has violated Article 7 of the Broadcasting Code, which refers to compliance with the principle of informing from several sources.
“The material about the press conference held by MPs representing the Party of Communists (PCRM) concerning exclusion of three televisions from the offers of service providers, where MPs accused democrat Vlad Plahotniuc, the BCC, Moldtelecom and the Information and Security Service, failed to present the latters’ positions confirming or denying these accusations,” the report says.
Accent TV director Roman Malinovski said that reporters could not obtain comments from the persons and institutions involved because they did not answer the reporters’ requests.
In his turn, BCC president Marian Pocaznoi said that the journalistic materials that brought serious accusations against public persons and institutions should have included a second opinion.
Subsequently, Accent TV representatives issued a statement criticizing the BCC. “By punishing journalists for treating the actions of decision makers negatively, the BCC assumes the inadmissible mission of “taming” the media that have the courage of revealing the failures and errors committed by the power. In other words, in the elections year 2014, the BCC became an instrument of censorship. The institution is performing the role of a “political health officer” that “cleans” the media space of the opinions that do not coincide with the opinions of political subjects from the governing coalition,” the statement says.
Jurnal TV has been penalized for the same violations of legislation. According to the BCC, a program and a journalistic material broadcast by this channel lacked the position of the parties concerned. The channel’s administration qualified this penalty as revenge and announced that they would challenge it in court.
The BCC sanctions came one day after the visit of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic, who criticized the work of the BCC, mentioning that this institution should not serve political parties of business interests.
“Such an authority should not engage in censorship activities, as is the monitoring of the opposition cable channels that is happening at the moment. Broadcast regulator should also not play the role of the editors, and they should offer a level playing field for all engaged. There are never favorite media for an independent, operational and professional regulator. Unfortunately, it is not the case now. I would urge the broadcast regulator to go back to the core of their profession, not participate in censorship,” Dunja Mijatovic underlined.
