Declared owners

Dorin SCOBIOALA,
Director General CAT Studio, Reuters Television correspondent

The law makes no difference between radio and TV frequencies owners, for CCA they all are „broadcasters”. If we refer to Vladimir Plahotniuc, declared owner of 7 media institutions, we can see that the number of licenses he holds is higher than provided by the law. Everything that until now was interpreted as speculations and lies, is now an officially confirmed information. This allows media organizations to challenge the lawfulness of a person holding 7 licenses.
After the transparency law enters into force, the ”national” state operator Moldtelecom, will have difficulty explaining by what marvellous coincidence the channels belonging to Vladimir Plahotniuc were placed on the first four positions in the digital TV packages. Again, no one will bother to provide explanations: there are no negative consequences for preference given to one of the media market players and as long as no penalty is provided, everything is allowed.
PROT TV Chisinau and ACASA TV in Moldova should expect certain penalties, since the administrators decided to conceal once again the identity of the real owners behind an unfinished range of offshore companies with identical names, registered in Curacao and Bermuda islands, one owning the other.

We found out what was already known
Jurnal TV made no unexpected disclosure, confirming what it stopped denying some time ago - ”the German sponsor”, the founder of the television channel is in fact a company that belongs to Victor Topa. Chiril Lucinschi admitted he is the owner of TV7 and BRAVO channels, which rebroadcast two Russian channels: NTV and TNT. Ilan Shor preferred to neither reveal, nor conceal the ownership of the two televisions, taken over from Valentin Bodisteanu. The official founder of Euro TV and Alt TV is Rita Tvic, who a few years ago was the director of NIT-channel, belonging to Boris Birshtein. But, she is now acting on behalf of Klassika Media, company that is owned by Shor family for a long time now.

The hand of Moscow
The major shareholder of RTR-Moldova TV channel is Rosmediakom, founded by the two largest banks from Russian Federation - Sberbank Rossii and Vneshekonombank and by All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company-VGTRK. Therefore, the Kremlin confirms that it owns and funds a television channel with an important coverage in the Republic of Moldova. The numerous claims submitted to CCA regarding the content of this channel, which is propagandistic, and sometimes even hostile to the Moldovan state, have never brought serious consequences. We can see “the hand of Moscow” in the shareholding and editorial policy of REN Moldova and Accent TV channels. In other words, Russia makes sure that the Republic of Moldova does not escape from under its propagandistic umbrella, and as long as our regulation authorities pretend not to notice the content of the rebroadcast programs and of those produced in Chisinau financed by Russia, it will continue promoting its own values by means of media institutions it finances.
STS Mega channel, managed by Dan Lozovanu, is controlled by Russians as well. Being an entertainment channel, just like TNT-Bravo, whose director is Chiril Lucinschi, it broadcasts fewer propagandistic programs. But, due to Russian shareholding, even the few programs broadcast in Chisinau are in Russian (for instance, the morning show, just like the one broadcast by RTR-Moldova).

We do not have yet… but it would be good
So, did the publication of the names of the real owners of Moldovan televisions open our eyes? We have a conglomerate of 4 channels with national coverage, concentrated in the hands of the same person, with a single editorial policy and no pluralism. We have channels owned by members of political parties, which makes them biased from the start. We have channels funded and controlled by state Russian financial and media structures. We have a television called “public” which in fact belongs to the Government and is funded by the state (reminds us of the proverb about “biting the hand that feeds you”)…
The disclosure of final beneficiaries of audiovisual media institutions should become the first step in establishing some civilised rules in this field. The next logical step would be to establish strict regulations regarding the amount of local programs, genuine ones, not the subtitling of ordinary sitcoms from Moscow. The violation of the Romanian language content quota should be penalised with the withdrawal of the broadcasting license. The piracy should be stopped. Eventually, the switch to digital television should take place, which would no longer advantage those who dishonestly took hold of terrestrial frequencies and established monopoly. The television should become a business, not a means of propaganda and political battles.
Unfortunately, I have to say that even with the „disclosed” owners, Moldovan televisions will continue to have an editorial policy dictated by the owner’s interests and believes. They will continue to be used with the purpose of creating and promoting convenient and useful opinions, rather than the purpose of informing. Unfortunately, the fact that we know the name of those who poison us with information does not help us at all in changing these flawed practices. Why? Because we do not have real means to influence them. In the situation where even the audience measurement sector is under monopoly, controlled by one of the market players, even the remote control is no longer a weapon the viewer could use to single out inappropriate products and, thus, to determine broadcasters to review their approach. Practically, we cannot event talk about a television market in the Republic of Moldova yet. To rebroadcast Russian products 23 hours per day and to produce a single hour of original local content (which is sometimes in Russian as well) does not mean you make television. The grace period, during which the broadcasters were allowed to obtain mega profits without making any investments, should end and we should start to build here in Moldova, our own television market, which would operate according to clear and common rules for all market players.
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The article was published within the Advocacy Campaigns Aimed at Improving Transparency of Media Ownership, Access to Information and promotion of EU values  and integration project, implemented by the IJC, which is, in its turn, part of the Moldova Partnerships for Sustainable Civil Society project, implemented by FHI 360.This article is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The content are the responsibility of author and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.