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On January 4, when the presentation of the Sturza government was broadcast from the parliament, static images appeared on several channels. On Moldova 1 the image suddenly disappeared – it got blocked and then the screen went dark. Ecaterina Stratan, director of the channel’s news and debates department, explained that “live broadcasting was blocked because when several channels are doing live broadcasts at one time, a technical block can occur.”
On January 20, live broadcasts of Jurnal TV and other TV channels that presented events from the parliament – TV7, Moldova 1, Canal 2, Canal 3, ProTV Chişinău, Publika TV and Prime – were interrupted. Media NGOs asked the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) to investigate the real reasons of these incidents.
Jurnal TV lawyer Dumitru Pavel told us he received no official reply from Moldtelecom in connection with interrupted broadcasting. Only the BCC informed the channel that “the problem has been solved.” “The BCC attached the service provider’s reply, according to which several TV channels were not aired on January 20 because Moldtelecom was the target of some cyber attacks,” Dumitru Pavel said.
What was the BCC reaction to the declaration of media NGOs? The council’s chairman Dinu Ciocan: “We took notice of this fact and initiated a check, but Moldtelecom told us in an official letter that they had some technical issues, cyber attacks, and promised to solve the problem in not more than 24 hours. Already the next day, when we conducted the check, we found that Jurnal TV was restored in the list.” Dinu Ciocan also mentioned that it is not the BCC that is responsible for the distribution of the signal to subscribers; it is the responsibility of other institutions, such as the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI).
Recently, on February 10, Natalia Morari, the author and host of “Politica” and “Interpol” talk shows aired by TV7, spoke about dozens of messages coming from viewers. “‘Politica’ and ‘Interpol’ are jammed, whether accidentally or not, and after 21.00 they’ve been having issues with reception of the signal. (…) Over the past several weeks, I have been receiving such messages almost daily – people from all over Moldova have issues with receiving our signal and the signal of several radios, including Jurnal FM,” the TV7 journalist said.
We called ANRCETI to speak with a specialist about the reasons of these and other incidents. In the front office, the secretary recommended to us to address Victor Tanase, deputy head of the regulatory acts execution department. In his turn, Victor Tanase told us: “Let me connect you with the person responsible for communication with the media. No offence, contact him, please.” Anatol Barbei, head of the service for information and communication with mass media, recommended: “You should call ANRCETI green line and receive an answer from specialists.” We called the green line, too, where we heard: “Our procedure is as follows: you should make a written application to the agency saying what you need or email your request to us. We give it to the director, and then the director signs a resolution…”
We asked if we could receive the answer to our question today, and we were told that we “will receive the answer within the term provided by law – not today.” We are still waiting for ANRCETI to reply.
