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The exclusion of Jurnal TV and two other TV stations from the channels offer of several cable providers in Moldova, including Sun Communications, Chisinau's market leader, caused ample reactions among the media, civil society, broadcasting officials, and so on. These reactions were also fueled by a draft decision of the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC), which is said to disadvantage the cable providers’ retransmission of channels that are not broadcast nationally and terrestrially. In addition, Jurnal TV's team announced they will continue their Japanese strike and the protests started on Monday, December 13th, in front of the BCC headquarters.
OFFICIALS
When asked by journalists to share his opinion, the head of the EU Delegation to Moldova Pirkka Tapiola said that he found the situation worrying. “There are serious questions, in my opinion, over what is going on at this moment. And this is not just about Jurnal TV. We have also seen problems with Accent TV and RTR Moldova. The European Union is very committed to the basic principles of freedom of media and the pluralistic media framework. This situation raises serious concerns, on my part, regarding the basic European values and their realization,” the European official said, and called upon authorities to carefully analyze the situation and to take all the necessary steps to ensure that media pluralism is respected in Moldova.
In addition, the OSCE representative for Freedom of the Press, Dunja Mijatović, released a statement on Tuesday saying the hasty expulsion of three TV channels from several providers' offers could damage media pluralism in Moldova. “The unilateral decision to stop retransmission of these three channels can curb media freedom and limit media pluralism in Moldova, not least since these channels were known for their critical reporting on the current government,” Mijatović said. She also asked authorities and the BCC to immediately investigate these problems.
US Embassy officials in Moldova also expressed their concern towards the "abrupt" expulsion of Accent TV, RTR Moldova and Jurnal TV from some cable offers in the country. "These exclusions limit the Moldovan people’s access to different viewpoints and damage the media environment. This seems to be the latest action in a disturbing trend where media outlets disappear from the airwaves for less than transparent reasons", the embassy noted. "We firmly believe that a healthy media environment reflects a diversity of views and perspectives, and allows for opposition voices to be heard".
Following the controversies in connection with Jurnal TV, the BCC organized a press conference on Monday, at noon. The Council had been accused by some media outlets of having executed orders received from the politician and businessman Vlad Plahotniuc to stop the channel’s retransmission. The Council chairman, Marian Pocaznoi, began by specifying “from the start that the BCC did not cease the activity of Jurnal TV and has nothing to do with what is happening today.” He asked all service providers to review their offers so as not to allow violations of consumer rights in Moldova. “We recommend that they notify the BCC when they decide to change the lists of channels,” Pocaznoi added.
As for the draft decision of the BCC concerning the channels that are mandatory for retransmission, which Jurnal TV called “inadmissible” at the end of last week and which raised concerns among the civil society as well, Marian Pocaznoi highlighted that the document is still a draft and that it had been sent for approval to all stakeholders: service distributors, broadcasting employers’ associations, and media NGOs. “So far we have received no request to modify this draft decision. We are expecting to receive, in a constructive manner, all suggestions concerning this draft decision. (…) We are asking Jurnal TV to stop the misinforming campaign they started on Friday by claiming that the BCC intends to exclude certain television channels. According to the Moldovan legislation, the channels that are mandatory to be retransmitted are those owned by the state, as well as TV5 Monde and TVR. No other channel, according to the current legislation, is imposed for retransmission. Not even Prime TV, Publika TV, or Canal 3 (i.e. outlets allegedly belonging to Vlad Plahotniuc)".
BCC representatives insisted that the draft is primarily intended for the promotion of the Romanian language and national heritage on television. They suggested that the disappearance of Jurnal TV from the offers of cable operators could prove to be “a technical problem.”
On the other hand, Alexandru Petkov, the vice-chairman of the parliamentary committee on media, told Jurnal TV that the exclusion of this and other channels from the broadcasting grids of several cable operators had been ordered by security services. “As far as I know, the Information and Security Service (ISS) had a meeting, on one of the last days of last year, with the largest cable operators in Moldova. Operators were recommended to exclude Accent TV, Jurnal TV, RTR Moldova and TV7 from channel offers, so that by this spring the offers of cable operators only include the television outlets serving tycoon Plahotniuc.” Petkov, an MP representing PCRM, is known for his inflammatory statements. During a communists' protest in November he claimed having seen snipers on the roof of the Government building.
JOURNALISTS
The general producer of Jurnal TV, Dorin Scobioala, said on Monday for the outlet he represents that the situation with Jurnal TV is “an orchestrated sabotage, a crime against the people and the country, because Jurnal TV is the only television outlet that is not being outside managed or politically controlled. It is the only television that is not a branch of a party in this country. Attempts are made to shut our mouths so that people find no more about corrupted judges, dysfunctional and controlled justice system, thieves in government, and so on,” he said.
Nata Albot, the predecessor of Scobioala, also expressed her indignation with the circumstances, posting on Facebook an appeal for people to come out to the streets. “Protest, if you have to. This is exactly what they count on. On the inertia and passivity that are specific to Moldovans, who do commotion on Facebook for about three days and forget about rebellion as soon as some other bomb news appear, which will necessarily happen to divert your attention.” She added that the one to blame for this situation is “a low life with lots of money, who thinks he is God over people’s destinies and over this country beaten by fate.”
Mass media representatives repeatedly spoke over the last few days about the alleged involvement of businessman Vlad Plahotniuc, who is also considered to be one of the most important media moguls in Moldova, despite having never recognized his properties in this field, in the exclusion of Jurnal TV from the offers of cable operators.
Constantin Cheianu from Jurnal TV told Media Azi on Monday, at the protest organized in front of the BCC headquarters, that “everyone in this country knows very well about what is going on. Everyone knows that there is a Plahotniuc who wants to shut the mouths of some journalists who still happen to tell the truth.” He characterized the situation of Jurnal TV as public execution, specifying that “90% of the media market is not enough for him [Plahotniuc], he still has to shut someone’s mouth. (…) I assure you that we will have our own small victories, It is a gesture of great, great weakness,” Cheianu concluded.
The hosts of the Politica program on TV7, Natalia Morari and Igor Botan, also expressed their displeasure with what happened to the team of Jurnal TV.
Natalia Morari wrote on Facebook that “You can completely disagree with the editorial policy of Jurnal TV, but what is happening now to this outlet is absolutely inadmissible. It smells of a country that is being seized right under the Europeans’ eyes.” She then addressed a question to Pirkka Tapiola (EU Ambassador to Moldova), willing to know what he thinks about this situation. “Now is the moment when all the media that are at least somewhat free should support them. Just like I once supported NIT – a “media abhorrence”, yes, but it is natural to support not only those we like,” Morari said, referring to the moment when the broadcasting license of the NIT TV outlet, criticized for its pro-Russian approach and promotion of the Party of Communists of Moldova (PCRM), was withdrawn in 2012 for failure to respect pluralism of opinions.
In turn, Igor Botan said for Jurnal TV that “this is a serious blow for press freedom in Moldova. Unfortunately, I have to say that it is happening in a year of elections. And it leads to sad thoughts about it being a way to attempt limiting sources of information for citizens.” The political analyst underlined that the exclusion of Jurnal TV from some grids indicates to the fact that democracy in Moldova has great problems and that from 2009 up to now, the much praised press freedom “has vanished”.
On the other hand, a former employee of Jurnal TV shared a completely different opinion. “The fact that Jurnal TV was taken out of the basic packages of cable operators is not a tragedy. This gesture, attributed to Vlad Plahotniuc, cannot be called an attempt against press freedom, either,” George Calin, former reporter of the television outlet, said in a post on the VoxPublika blog, affiliated to Publika TV. “Jurnal TrIst Media [wordplay, translated as “Jurnal Sad Media”] has totally deviated from the fundamental principles of the press, having become the only outlet in Moldova that works only to discredit a person. Exactly as the party it is affiliated to (and has been since its creation) – AntiMafia Movement – did. The newscasts of this television outlet have been modeled around some news items that are actually attacks on the person,” Calin believes. He also wrote that Jurnal TV is no better than NIT and that it should have the same destiny.
The Monday protest was supported by the volunteers of the AntiMafia Movement, which claims to be a political entity promoting “the values of European democracy, human and national dignity.” The movement, created in 2010 in opposition to the Alliance for European Integration (AEI) that replaced communists, defines itself as a popular political doctrine “based on the moral values of Christianity – human solidarity and love for people.”
CIVIL SOCIETY
Media NGOs also reacted to the news about the exclusion of Jurnal TV from the offers of Moldovan cable operators. Eight non-governmental organizations signed a joint declaration, asking the Broadcasting Coordinating Council, as a guarantor of public interest in the field of broadcasting, to apply legal mechanisms that would oblige service distributors to return to the channels grids as of 31 December 2013. Thus, two other channels excluded from the offer of Moldtelecom at the beginning of this year, Accent TV and RTR Moldova, would also return to TV screens.
Civil society representatives also referred to the draft decision concerning the TV channels that are mandatory for retransmission and the change of rules in the field, which the BCC published on its website. Jurnal TV notified about these changes on Friday, 10 January, mentioning that this outlet would be one of those that have the most to lose. However, media NGOs asked mass media “to cover the conflict between retransmission companies and some broadcasters in a neutral and objective manner, without exaggerating or distorting reality.”
Also, Marian Cepoi, activist and expert of the IDIS VIITORUL organization, who was present at the protest in front of the BCC headquarters, told Media Azi that this situation is a very serious attack on democracy. “Some politicians find the things presented by Jurnal TV inconvenient,” Cepoi claims, warning that if the situation does not return to normality, protests will increase and attract more and more people.
Historian Octavian Ticu also participated in the protest, saying that his involvement is “the natural reaction of a person who feels that his freedom is threatened in a space where it is rather mimed than real.” He added that, under the coverage of European integration, “extremely dirty things are being done.”
“European integration is a thing wanted by Europeans more than by those in government, because the latter – and I mean the supporters of the two tycoons, Filat and Plahotniuc, who are currently in agreement, – make me worry about what is going on,” Ticu concluded.
SILENT PROVIDERS
While journalists, politicians and the civil society come forward with declarations and diverse opinions, the cable operators whose offers suddenly lost Jurnal TV keep silence. Contacted by Media Azi, the representatives of Domino TV said that they no longer transmit Jurnal TV because they no longer receive its signal and that “no one knows why.” Also, the director of the local operator Laritex TV, Iurie Erhan, told us that they stopped receiving the signal from the provider, Veb TV, and the reason is unknown. He said that the representatives of Laritex are trying to find out what happened, because a significant number of subscribers started expressing their displeasure. Laritex TV has about 2,000 subscribers.
The other large cable operators, including Sun Communications, could not be contacted. The management of Sun Communications, however, published a short announcement on the company’s website: “Please be informed that the TV channels Jurnal TV and Accent TV are available in our channels grid in Optim and Ultra packages. We would also like to inform you that at the moment the RTR Moldova channel is unavailable. Sun Communications makes all efforts to remedy the situation as soon as possible. We apologize for the inconveniences.” They provided no explanations for the current situation.
BACKGROUND
To recall, Jurnal TV was excluded, on the night of Sunday to Monday, from the basic offers of several cable operators of the country: Sun Comunications, Laritex TV, Megapolis TV, TSV Com, Domino TV, Art TV Strășeni, Larom TV, Alfa TV, DIC TV, Gala TV and Satelit TV. With Sun Communications, the channel is available only in digital packages, which are more expensive.
Last week, Jurnal TV informed about a draft decision of the BCC concerning the distribution of mandatory channels on the territory of Moldova. According to this document, only the channels with national coverage that are broadcast by air would be mandatory for retransmission – a fact that would leave out such channels as PRO TV Chisinau or Jurnal TV. On the other hand, the BCC announced on Monday that Jurnal TV representatives have been misinforming the public by their statements and specified that there is no list of channels for mandatory retransmission, and the draft issued by the institution is still at the stage of discussions, being about to enter public debates.
Earlier, at the beginning of the month, Accent TV (a channel affiliated to communists) and RTR Moldova (the local version of a Russian TV channel) were excluded from the channels grid of Moldtelecom. These changes on the media market come at the time of a report, launched on 8 January, according to which the information space of Moldova is still dominated by Russian or pro-Russian media outlets.
In December, Moldovan mass media also wrote a lot about the fact that a number of Russian television channels are manipulating the public on issues concerning Moldova, especially after the Iurie Leanca government signed the Association Agreement with the EU in Vilnius.
