MUNICIPAL MEDIA CONFLICT IN MOLDOVA: THE PRESSQUAKE. Artur Corghencea. April 6, 2004

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1 MUNICIPAL MEDIA CONFLICT IN MOLDOVA: THE PRESSQUAKE Artur Corghencea April 6, 2004 Journalists on hunger strike, independent public authority accused of following political orders, ruling party suspected of repressing opposition and opposition believed to be breaking law. All these are consequences of a single scandal that of municipal media. An event that shocked Moldovan press at the beginning of the year was the suspension of municipal broadcasters transmission. Antena C Radio and Euro TV were obliged to quit their programs. But let s take it from the beginning. Let me introduce the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) - the only institution in Moldova that can allocate or withdraw broadcasting licenses. It consists of nine members, named by Parliament, President and Government. (It is important to note that the ruling party has a constitutional majority in the legislative body, i.e. more than 2/3. Due to this, the President, elected by Parliament, represents the same party, and the Government is loyal to the President). The other actor of the story is Chisinau Mayoralty. Chisinau is the capital of Moldova. It concentrates more than 60% of the economic potential of the whole country and about 1/3 of the population. During the last several years the Mayoralty created a genuine media holding (of course, using public money) which includes Antena C radio, Euro TV, Info Prim news agency, Capitala newspaper and Capitala magazine. The holding used to be a part of the Public Relations Department of the municipality, receiving money from the local budget and from advertising. Each side has its own version of how the conflict emerged.

2 BCC The Broadcasting Coordinating Council says it started last summer. That was the first time that BCC demanded Chisinau Mayoralty to prepare special statutes for Euro TV and Antena C so that the two institutions could separate from the municipality. The statutes were supposed to stipulate the scheme under which these media were to be financed and the mechanism of creating their management bodies. The aim was noble to transform municipal radio and TV stations into public institutions. After last summer, no one heard anything about this issue. Early this year, BCC reiterated its demand, this time warning that the municipal media could lose their licenses. The Mayoralty s excuses and promises were not accepted and in a couple of weeks BCC decided to suspend broadcasting licenses and program transmission for Euro TV and Antena C Radio. Mayoralty The municipality has another view. Observers close to the Mayoralty maintain that the roots of this story come from earlier times, when two years ago the ruling party was suggested (read obliged) by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to transform national radio and TV into public institutions. Formally, the Moldovan authorities obeyed and, formally, on the eve of local elections last year, they were not controlling the national broadcasters. At the same time, the Mayor of Chisinau continued formally and de facto to control its media. The electoral fight for Chisinau between the Mayor and the ruling party s candidate was won by the former with a very small difference. Thus, observers say the ruling party was angry and demanded, through BCC, the transformation of municipal media into public outlets. However, the purpose is not as noble as it seems. Divergences The Mayoralty admits it had to prepare special statutes for Euro TV and Antena C. Moreover, according to the municipality, the documents were ready at the beginning of this year. Just a little before the BCC warning (see above), the Parliament adopted a Law on Local Public Broadcasting Services. As Chisinau is the only city with public media, the Law

3 obviously regarded it. The Mayoralty then had to modify the statutes prepared for the two media to bring them in accordance with the Law. Meanwhile, the Broadcasting Council issued the warning, rejected the municipality s explanations and suspended the licenses. One can understand BCC the Mayoralty has had plenty of time to prepare and submit the statutes since last summer. Reactions Different media organizations criticized BCC for its decision. The OSCE and Council of Europe for their part stated that the punishment was too severe and not proportional to the offence. The OSCE Mission to Moldova suggested BCC to review its decision and different ambassadors in Chisinau expressed their hope that the problem would be solved as soon as possible. The Broadcasting Council seemed to yield. The most interesting part In a paragraph above, observers said that the Moldovan authorities purpose of transformation of municipal media into public outlets was not as noble as it seemed. Their arguments follow. Two weeks after the suspension of Euro TV and Antena C Radio, the Mayoralty submitted the new statutes to the State Registration Chamber. The latter rejected the documents on ground of technical deficiencies. The Mayoralty solved the problems and put the acts forward to the local council (almost 50% consisting of the ruling party s members). The meeting, in which the documents were to be approved, was canceled for lack of quorum. The head of the OSCE mission to Moldova William Hill and permanent representative of the Council of Europe Secretary General Vladimir Filipov called on the Moldovan authorities to "exercise political will" to break the deadlock. The amendments were at last adopted by the local council, and BCC, in what appeared to be a conciliatory gesture, promised to convene a special Council meeting to discuss ways to

4 ease the tension. The proposed agenda for the meeting included discussions on the possibility of declaring a one-month moratorium on the suspension order. Only six out of nine BCC members showed up for the meeting and it was canceled for lack of quorum. Why would the authorities (if that is what they are doing) protract the process of taking a final decision and what could be the tacit purpose (if there is one) of the whole thing? Many observers qualified the attacks on broadcasters as an attempt to gag opposition media in the run-up to the parliamentary elections of Experts predict that the main competitors for seats in the legislative body will be the President s party (ruling) and the Mayor s party (one of opposition). The authorities have not commented on these allegations, but have stated that BCC is an independent public authority and that no state institution interferes in its activity. Meanwhile The staff of Euro TV and Antena C practically lost their work when BCC ordered the suspension of the two media. Employees organized a series of unauthorized protests and, as result, a few journalists were fined. Despite that, they continued to picket BCC and to discuss the problem at roundtables with the participation of civil society representatives and members of foreign missions to Moldova. After the most interesting part (see above), six journalists went on a hunger strike. They brought beds to the Euro TV studio, determined to stay there until BCC changed its decision. At the same time, BCC stated it was not responsible for the hunger strike and its possible consequences, as the decision on suspension was taken in strict respect of the law. Data The suspension of Euro TV and Antena C broadcasting licenses is not the first case of its kind, although it provoked a real quake in Moldovan media. Analytic Media Group, a company that used to rebroadcast Russian Public TV (ORT) in Moldova, lost its license almost three years ago because of debts for the license fee. The

5 company resumed its program transmission in about two weeks, after presenting a calendar of debt payment. Vocea Basarabiei radio station, covering the western part of the country, which rebroadcasts BBC and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty programs for Moldova, was suspended about two years ago because of the same problem license fee debts. Emission was resumed in about three weeks. Both these cases happened during the actual ruling party s mandate and each time media organizations and international bodies pointed out that the punishment was not proportional to the incriminated violation. Artur Corghencea, M.A. in Journalism and Communication, is a reporter of Pro TV Chisinau. Media Online All rights reserved.