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The Broadcasting Coordinating Council Sent to the Office of the Prosecutor General the Petition on the Situation at Gagauzia Public Broadcaster

05 June 2015
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The members of the of the Broadcasting Coordinating Council decided at the meeting on Friday, June 5, to send for review to the Office of the Prosecutor General and to the State Chancellery the petition signed by Ana Harlamenco, former Chair of the Public Company Gagauzia Radio Televizionu (GRT), by which she notified the regulator about some serious problems regarding the reorganization of the broadcaster.
 
In her petition, Ms. Harlamenco drew the attention of the Broadcasting Coordinating Council to the alleged violations by the Supervisory Board of the Company, starting from her dismissal from her position of GRT Chairperson and appointment of Stepan Piron instead. According to the author, the new management of the company intends – once the transition to digital television is completed – “to use the public assets of the company to serve the interests of service distributors in the region, which would charge for the services provided to population”.

Ms. Harlamenco claims that when she used to be GRT Chairperson she planned to build a multiplex system “to provide to population free access to broadcast services rather than sell the system, as service distributors are planning now”. Ana Harlamenco also says that the current GRT Chairman is one of the service providers in Comrat and he “aims at destroying the company and to seizing its whole infrastructure”. According to her, they purchased advanced equipment from abroad and ensured very good working conditions at GRT, and now there is risk that all will be destroyed.

The members of the Broadcasting Coordinating Council took note of the petition signed by Ana Harlamenco and decided to send it to the Office of the Prosecutor General and to the State Chancellery. “It is an issue that goes beyond our competences. We should notify the relevant bodies in order to start an investigation to determine whether the steps described in the petition were taken in line with the law or whether there have been some irregularities”, said the Chair of the Broadcasting Coordinating Council, Dinu Ciocan.