BC penalized REN Moldova with MDL 30,000 fines and a public warning

The Broadcasting Council sanctioned REN Moldova with fines totaling MDL 30,000 and issued a public warning for inappropriate placement of advertising in the main news bulletin, inconsistency between a show’s images and topic, and failure to specify the source of images broadcast by the channel. The sanctions were applied during the February 3 meeting following a self-notification by Aneta Gonta, BC Vice-president.

According to a statement from BC, most of the topics covered in news bulletins of January 9 through 15 by REN Moldova did not specify the sources of recordings, while the Audiovisual Media Services Code (AMSC) provides for this obligation in the case of video materials originating from sources other than those of the editorial office. REN Moldova was thus fined MDL 5,000. Also, the title of a news item in the January 9 bulletin did not match the image. For this, the TV channel received a public warning.

Another five fines of MDL 5,000 each were imposed to Teleproiect, the founder of REN Moldova, for interrupting the main news bulletin of the evening with advertising. AMSC stipulates that audiovisual news programs can be interrupted by advertising and/or teleshopping only once at an interval of at least 30 minutes, while the entire duration of the REN Moldova news bulletin did not exceed 30 minutes.

Aneta Gonta, BC Vice-President, emphasized that out of the total of 60 international news items broadcast during the monitored period not a single one made reference to Ukraine, the Russian Federation or Romania: “No references to what is happening at the border with Moldova in five news bulletins over a week is deemed lack of proper information”, said the BC Vice-President. The TV channel did not express its position towards BC’s decision as no representative of the media outlet was present at the meeting and no written reaction was sent to the authority.