30 July 2019
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During the public meeting of 29 July, with five votes in favour and one against, the Broadcasting Council (BC) voted for the proposal to dismiss all members of the Supervisory Board (SB) of Teleradio-Moldova public Company. The decision was adopted after examining the notification made by a SB member and the request filed by Parliamentary Committee for Media to BC asking for a review of SB work and comment on the violations found. BC member Olga Gututui declared that she did not participate in voting on this issue.
BC examined the results of investigation conducted at the SB by a member of broadcasting regulator and found that a number of previously reported irregularities were confirmed.
Thus, SB did not comply with the legal requirements and did not organise a competition for appointing an Executive Director of Teleradio-Moldova within six months from the enactment date of the Broadcasting Code. SB also failed to ensure transparency of its decisions and did not publish these documents on its website. Another violation found by the BC is that a person who was not a member of the SB held the position of SB secretary for a period of time, which is contrary to the law.
The notification requesting to review the economic and financial problems during 2016-2017 and how SB members were paid for an extended period was relegated by BC to the Court of Accounts.
Note that BC member Olga Gututui, present at the meeting, refrained from voting, expressing her fear that dismissing SB according to the proposed formula would be quite illegal. BC member Cojocaru voted against the proposal to dismiss all SB members.
SB Chairman Nicolae Spataru rejected most of the BC members’ allegations, arguing that when the Council was inactive, it did not comprise the required number of members.
Note that during the hearings of 10 July this year, the MPs of the Parliamentary Committee for Mass-media qualified the activity of the SB of ‘Teleradio-Moldova’ Public Company as ineffective. At that time members of the Parliamentary Committee MPs called for the dismissal of the ‘Teleradio-Moldova’ Chair, Olga Bordeianu, of Moldova 1 Director, Ecaterina Stratan, and of the SB Chair, Nicolae Spataru.
During ‘Media-azi’ show, Adrian Lebedinschi, Chairman of Parliamentary Committee for Mass-Media declared that he advocated for having members of Supervisory Board appointed by the Parliament (currently the BC has this competence). When asked by the moderator of the show if this practice could result in political control over the Council, Lebedinschi answered that SB members are appointed for a six years term, three people every two years, but Parliament works for four years and that in such conditions MPs could not control it.
BC examined the results of investigation conducted at the SB by a member of broadcasting regulator and found that a number of previously reported irregularities were confirmed.
Thus, SB did not comply with the legal requirements and did not organise a competition for appointing an Executive Director of Teleradio-Moldova within six months from the enactment date of the Broadcasting Code. SB also failed to ensure transparency of its decisions and did not publish these documents on its website. Another violation found by the BC is that a person who was not a member of the SB held the position of SB secretary for a period of time, which is contrary to the law.
The notification requesting to review the economic and financial problems during 2016-2017 and how SB members were paid for an extended period was relegated by BC to the Court of Accounts.
Note that BC member Olga Gututui, present at the meeting, refrained from voting, expressing her fear that dismissing SB according to the proposed formula would be quite illegal. BC member Cojocaru voted against the proposal to dismiss all SB members.
SB Chairman Nicolae Spataru rejected most of the BC members’ allegations, arguing that when the Council was inactive, it did not comprise the required number of members.
Note that during the hearings of 10 July this year, the MPs of the Parliamentary Committee for Mass-media qualified the activity of the SB of ‘Teleradio-Moldova’ Public Company as ineffective. At that time members of the Parliamentary Committee MPs called for the dismissal of the ‘Teleradio-Moldova’ Chair, Olga Bordeianu, of Moldova 1 Director, Ecaterina Stratan, and of the SB Chair, Nicolae Spataru.
During ‘Media-azi’ show, Adrian Lebedinschi, Chairman of Parliamentary Committee for Mass-Media declared that he advocated for having members of Supervisory Board appointed by the Parliament (currently the BC has this competence). When asked by the moderator of the show if this practice could result in political control over the Council, Lebedinschi answered that SB members are appointed for a six years term, three people every two years, but Parliament works for four years and that in such conditions MPs could not control it.