Fines of 22.000 Lei for Several TV Channels Which Do Not Comply with Their Own Program Concepts

The Broadcasting Council fined such companies as Teleradio-Moldova, the founder of the Moldova 1 TV channel, ProDigital, the founder of ProTV Chisinau, and Media Alternativa, the owner of the TV8 channel, 5000 lei each, for not complying with the general concept of the audiovisual media service. Real Radio company, the founder of TV Familia, was sanctioned 7000 lei for the same breach at the BC meeting held on August 18, 2023.

The BC decided to verify compliance with the general concept at such channels as Vocea Basarabiei, Art TV, BTV, ProTV Chisinau, TV8, TV Elita, and Moldova 1 in June, starting from the premise that the broadcasting licenses they held were to expire in 2024. After the monitoring, the Council stated that Moldova 1 broadcast less of its own products, but other producers’ shows exceeded the planned amount more than four times. Moreover, in spite of the fact that it had assumed an obligation not to broadcast programs by entities which were not under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Moldova, the channel broadcast 7% of such programs in proportion to the total amount. Moldova 1 did not provide any explanations to the BC.

Vocea Basarabiei broadcast almost 6% less of its own products than it had originally planned (96%), but more shows by other producers, though the initial concept included 0% of them. This channel also did not offer any explanations to the BC.

As to ProTV Chisinau, among other things, it was stated that purchased, retransmitted, or re-broadcast programs accounted for 70% according to the plans, while they actually amounted to almost 55%. The channel also broadcast far less cultural and educational programming than originally planned. ProTV did not provide any response on this issue either.

TV8, among other breaches, broadcast almost 10% less its own products than planned. Instead, it aired approximately 20% more shows by other producers. Breaches related to the amount of programs of European origin and by foreign producers were also identified. TV8 explained the low amount of its own products by the end of the seasons of some shows before the monitoring term, i.e. the summer months which had a lower production capacity.

TV Elita and Familia also had some breaches related to in their own broadcasts, informative and analytical programs, as well as movies. TV Elita disagreed with some of the BC’s calculations. Art TV and BTV did not file the records as demanded by the BC. Hence, the authority decided to continue its control of BTV, as they had not been broadcasting during the monitoring term, and ART TV was fined 5000 lei for not filing the records.

To encourage the audiovisual media service providers’ own and local production, BC member Ruslan Mihalevschi pleaded not to sanction those who had more such broadcasts than indicated in the plans. “Our problem is that we have not accustomed them to notifying the BC of the amendments they make to the plans to obtain approvals,” he added. Instead, several BC members spoke in favor of fines for those who broadcast fewer cultural and educational programs than expected, as well as a smaller amount of their own programs.