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DTV and Cinema 1 Sanctioned by the BC for Insufficiency of Local Broadcasting Programs and Lack of Translation in Films

16 March 2021
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În Moldova
The Broadcasting Council (BC) members applied sanctions with a public warning to Cinema 1 and DTV TV channels for insufficiency of local broadcasting programs and lack of translation in films. The sanctions were applied upon receiving the petitions from the Regulatory Association of Broadcasters of Moldova and two members of the Board, Corneliu Mihalache and Lidia Viziru.

The petitioners from the Association mentioned that the targeted TV channels “committed serious breaches”: Cinema 1 did not broadcast local programs, and DTV only broadcast local news in Russian. The representatives of the Association also stated that both channels did not provide dubbing or subtitles in Romanian for cinematographic works. Lidia Viziru and Corneliu Mihalache also requested to conduct monitoring of the TV channels.

The DTV representatives informed the Board that the statements of the Regulatory Association of Broadcasters were “declarative, aimed at putting pressure on certain private media service providers in the country by calling for unfair competition and intimidation, using such an institution as the Broadcasting Council  for  this purpose.” The channel’s representatives also added that the recordings made by the petitioner belonged not to the category of feature films, but to that of series which “do not fall under the Broadcasting Code.”

The BC monitoring results confirmed the breaches committed by both TV channels classified as regional private channels, which have to broadcast at least two hours of local programs daily, at the first broadcast, in proportion of at least 80% in Romanian, whereas 75% of program content has to be broadcast during prime time. According to the BC, during the monitored period, the DTV channel produced local programs with an average daily duration of 0%, and the local ones in prime time were fewer than provided by law. At the same time, the films broadcast by DTV had no subtitles or dubbing in Romanian.

Cinema 1 did not broadcast local content according to the legislation either.

“We have stated exactly the same situation as with the previous providers we sanctioned. And tomorrow, we will wake up with accusations of corruption and similar issues. The situation is rather interesting – they failed to make their place in the market and are already breaching the rules, unfortunately. We thought that a leopard could change its spots and habits, but the leopard does not change its spots or its habits,” Ala Ursu-Antoci, President of the BC, commented in this context.