There were introduced amendments to the Moldavian Code on Television and Radio that commit television and radio channels to wrap off their owners’s names.
This decision passed the second reading with 78 from 101 votes of all the Moldavian parliament’s fractions, except for the liberals. The document was voted by the democratic, liberal democratic, communist and socialist fractions of the Moldavian parliament, and it will take effect in six months. The liberal party refused to support the document, because its version of amendments to the Code didn’t pass, as Radio France Internationale reports.
In the version of the draft law submitted by the liberals, the real media channels’ owners were offered to publish the origins of their financial resources. In addition, the companies registered offshore were prohibited to become owners of TV and radio channels in Moldova. As mentioned above, the parliament of Moldova rejected that draft law version.
According to the passed amendments, any person interested in obtaining licence for television and radio broadcasting, is obliged to provide comprehensive personal information to be posted on the website of the Moldavian Television and Radio Coordination Council. If the Council deems it convenient, it may request the applicant for additional information. The refusal to provide information can be a sufficient reason for the refusal of licence.
The same amendments to the Code will oblige the private television and radio channels to report annually on their operation prior to May 1.
The document passed its fist reading over six months ago. It was prepared by the Moldavian Independent Journalism Center in cooperation with Kirill Luchinskiy, Liberal Democratic Party’ s member, who held the post of the Chairman of the Mass Media Parliamentary Commission at that time. As is well-known, the same deputy owns two Moldavian TV channels: TV7 retransmitting the Russian channel NTV, and ТNТ BRAVO retransmitting ТNТ.
