Orhei Radio Station ‘Cloned’ – How and in Whose Benefit

The management of Radio Orhei station intends to file a lawsuit against the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC), claiming that the said authority issued a broadcasting licence for a radio station with a similar name – Radio Orhei FM in April this year. Radio Orhei administration considers the decision illegal, since no consideration was given to the similarity of names of the two radio broadcasters. The founder and the head of the station Tatiana Djamanov states that names’ sameness would lead to confusion among radio listeners. She applied to the BCC with a preliminary request. The BCC rejected the request submitted by Radio Orhei, justifying its decision by the lack of any specific legal requirements that would forbid the broadcaster from using the name.

Premises for unfair competition

Tatiana Djamanov thinks that a radio station with a similar name appeared in the town for a reason. Djamanov does not exclude the possibility that the station became inconvenient for the current Orhei authorities and believes that a new station directly affects its image: ‘One could erroneously assume that we belong to the “Cutarescu” team or work for them’, adds Tatiana Djamanov.
In its preliminary request submitted to the BCC in early May, the administration of Radio Orhei demanded to withdraw or amend the Council’s decision dated 5 April 2018 on the issuance of broadcasting licence to Radio Orhei FM station, since the broadcasting authority did not consider both the fact that Radio Orhei has been operating with a well-known name for 12 years, and the provisions of legislation on intellectual property and competition rules, ‘creating premises for confusing the programmes consumers and unfair competition.’
The administrator of Radio Orhei thinks that violation of competition rules would consist in Radio Orhei FM using the image and reputation created by Radio Orhei over the years in the town where it has a large audience – ‘for unfair benefits’ and in the prejudice of the economic interests of the station.
 

BCC reasoning

At its meeting of 22 May, the BCC rejected the preliminary request of Radio Orhei administration, mentioning the absence of grounds for withdrawal or amendment of the previous decision. The BCC invoked the following reasons: the Regulation on the procedure and conditions for issuance of broadcasting licenses and rebroadcasting authorizations does not provide for a condition of presenting confirming documents regarding the use of a name by broadcasters. ‘Thus, the Broadcasting Coordinating Council can not expand the licensing conditions on the ground of verifying the opposability of using the name of the said two radio stations’, says the Council decision.
BCC member Olga Gututui did not support the rejection of the preliminary request submitted by Radio Orhei since she had not voted for the issuance of a broadcasting licence for Radio Orhei FM as well. Radio Orhei FM obtained its broadcasting licence on 5 April 2018 with six votes. The BCC members Artur Cozma and Olga Gututui voted against the decision.

‘We are not to blame, it is BCC’s decision...’

Radio Orhei FM is administrated by Media Forum SRL Company registered on 30 January 2018, while 100% of its shares belong to the Company Head Sergiu Moraru. 
Asked by Media-Azi about the reason for insisting on Radio Orhei FM name for the station, and not choosing another one, Sergiu Moraru stated they had no intention to impede the activity of Radio Orhei, and that initially they had had two name variants. ‘We are really not the ones to blame, since it was the Broadcasting’s (BCC – e. c.) decision – to go with Orhei FM. (...) We had two options – Orhei FM and another one, I can’t remember it now, it’s been a while. There were two packages and they chose this one’, Moraru told us. As for the possible confusions, Moraru explained it this way: ‘People will immediately know these are two different stations anyway. We will be more entertaining ones, with practically no politics at all.’

Ambiguities of the legal address of Media Forum SRL

At the State Registration Chamber, the headquarters of Media Forum Company is registered at the following address: 14/3 Gradina Botanica Str., Apt. (office) 307, Chisinau municipality, Republic of Moldova.
According to investigations of RISE Moldova journalists, a company that belongs to metropolitan Vladimir, as well as 20 other firms from Iraq, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Italy, Turkey and the Republic of Moldova are registered at the exact same address and in the same office. Ziarul de Garda wrote about the companies registered with this address as well.
Tatiana Djamanov is convinced that the company that manages the new radio station protects the interests of the representatives of the current Mayor of Orhei. Recently, she mentioned on the Radioorhei.info website her intention to challenge the BCC’s decision in court.

Lawyer’s opinion

The lawyer and media legislation expert Tatiana Puiu, who got the case of Radio Orhei, said to Media-azi.md that she would appeal the BCC decision in court as illegal. She also intends to file a complaint with the Competition Council (CC) pointing at the unfair competition in licensing a radio station that has a name similar to another station that has been on the media market for the past 12 years. According to Tatiana Puiu, a legal vacuum problem exists as well, since the law does not clearly stipulate the duties of BCC and CC in such situations.  
Tatiana Puiu states that until the new Broadcasting Code with clear provisions for this kind of situations is adopted, it is for the court to clarify this case.