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The media experts are concerned about the debates on the audiovisual legislation

25 July 2016
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The discussion club "STOP FALSE" met on Monday, July 25 to address an up to date topic: " Protection of the domestic informational space from the external  and internal propaganda". The event was organized in response to the Parliament's announcement from last week on the organization on July, 26 of public debates on the topic: "The challenges of the media space from the Republic of Moldova, the propaganda and the domestic product". The discussion club had as moderator Petru Macovei, director of the Association of Independent Press (AIP) who recently declared for Media Azi that the public debates organized by the Parliament constitue" a mimicry of the participatory process of adopting the changes of the audiovisual legislation".
 
Nadine Gogu, the executive director of the Independent Journalism Centre is increasingly concerned about these public debates. " The Parliament voted the bill of the new Broadcasting Code in the first reading, that was in fact the basic bill, but now they talk separately about bills nr.125 and nr.218. The risk is that, at least one of them, nr.218 will be voted in the second reading till July,31. They will make changes to the old Code, but the bill of the new Code will be forgotten. They don't play with the cards on the table, this worries", declared the media expert during the meeting of the club.
 
The executive director of AIP, Petru Macovei, is convinced that public debates are organized by the Parliament to promote one bill, nr.218, which will be voted in the second reading. He says that through this "they want to clean the media market to make room for other posts. And all of these are done for the noble fight with the propaganda".
 
In the opinion of the executive director of the Association of Electronic Press (AELP), Ion Bunduchi, one of the authors of the New Code, "it was logical to work all at the same document, the bill of the new Code". Bunduchi says about the debates organized by the Parliament on Tuesday, July, 26: "We could witness speeches, not debates".  Ion Bunduchi is certain that " something has to be done with the external propaganda", but he considers that complex actions are needed, not ban a channel or another.
 
Another author of the bill of the new Broadcasting Code, Eugeniu Ribca, expert in the media legislation, shares the opinion that "the bills nr. 218 and nr. 125 don't protect the informational space". The European expertise is negative, they contain at least five severe violations of the standards on the freedom of expression". In addition,  Ribca says the bill nr.218 is full of contradictions. He brings an example: "Why to remove our own product as the bill nr. 218 proposes? It is serious that such changes are proposed without consulting the Broadcasting Coordinating Council". " The Parliament's representatives lie in their throats when they claim that the bill of the new Code wasn't sent for the approval of the European institutions. The document was approved by OSCE, EU and CE", specifies Eugeniu Ribca.
 
The political scientist Lasha Tughushi, the director of the Foundation 
"European initiative - Free Academy Tbilisi" participated at the meeting on skype from Tbilisi. He reported about the Georgian experience of combating foreign propaganda through mass media