IJC Campaign “Stop Concentration!” Continues

Oleg Cristal, journalist and editor-in-chief of Publika TV, is the new owner of Canal 2 and Canal 3 channels. An application in this regard was analyzed and accepted at the meeting of the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) on May 12. Previously, the two channels were owned by the Democratic Party Chairman Vladimir Plahotniuc.

According to the changes introduced in March 2017 into the current Broadcasting Code, which entered into force on April 14, an individual or a legal entity cannot hold more than two licenses in one territorial-administrative unit.

In this context, Media Azi returns to the issue of media concentration and invites journalists and experts to share their views on the efficiency/inefficiency of changing the legislation. The guests of this section will answer the question: Will this change reduce concentration on the broadcasting market of Moldova?

Viorica Zaharia, Chair of the Press Council: “Let’s see if the change of owner at Canal 2 and Canal 3 really took place”

On March 30, 2017, when the Parliament voted on the amendment concerning this anti-concentration measure in the Broadcasting Code, the news of the GMG group informed: “A person will have the right to own up to two television licenses and two radio licenses. Therefore, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Moldova, Vlad Plahotniuc, will have to give up the four televisions he owns.” I was wondering, then, why the reporters paid by Vlad Plahotniuc put this phrase in their text without asking their owner (as it would have been normal, as he is one of the parties concerned), whether he will really give up licenses, and what plans he has for the two televisions.

The “suspense” lasted until last Friday, when we found out that two of the four televisions seemingly did, but in fact did not, leave the GMG Group, as they became the property of journalist Oleg Cristal, who has worked at Publika TV since 2009 and for several months has been the image counselor to Vladimir Plahotniuc.

The question that is asked today is whether the change of owner really took place. We will be able to see it very quickly from the editorial content of the channels that “left” the media trust, which should be different from now on. I mean, we should not see the same content in the news on all four TV channels, pro-government and pro-uninominal vox populi taken with four different microphones but selected by the loyalty of the message, the same guests on talk shows who say and defend the same idea. This is, in fact, the point of de-concentration of media ownership – there should pluralism and diversity of approach. If we don’t see it happen (and I believe we won’t), it will show us once again that the law in Moldova has been observed formally and the de-concentration was mimicked.