Distributors from Gagauzia Fined Almost 200000 Lei for Not Protecting the National Audiovisual Space

At the meeting held on July 6, several media service distributors from the ATU of Gagauzia were fined by the Broadcasting Council (BC) for the first time for not protecting the national audiovisual space and for operating without a permissive act. The total sanctions applied amounted to 186000 lei.

According to the BC, the members of the authority applied sanctions equal to 100000 lei to such distributors as Oguzsatlink and ILK HALK TELEVIZIONU which rebroadcast informative and analytical programs by TV channels from the Russian Federation and Belarus, thus breaching the provisions of Art. 17 of the Code of Audiovisual Media Services (CAMS) on failing to protect the national audiovisual space.

Oguzsatlink SRL was fined 50000 lei for rebroadcasting TV programs by such channels as Pervii Kanal, NTV, Rossia 1, RBK, Rossia 24, and Belarus 24. ILK HALK TELEVIZIONU, likewise, rebroadcast TV programs by such channels as Krasnaia Linia, NTV, Rossia 24, and Belarus 24, which was prohibited by the legislation, and was also fined 50000 lei. The distributors were ordered to cease broadcasting programs breaching the country’s information security within 24 hours, the Council warns.

They also were fined for practicing their activity without rebroadcasting authorizations or broadcasting licenses. Oguzsatlink rebroadcasts 58 TV media services contrary to the legislation, whereas ILK HALK TELEVIZIONU rebroadcasts 37 of them. The distributors were fined 19000 lei each for working without a permissive act from the BC and were ordered to legalize their activity within 15 working days.

In addition, ILK HALK TELEVIZIONU was also fined 19000 lei for broadcasting the Pervii Narodnii TV channel without having obtained a broadcasting license.

Another distributor, Steel Trading Group, was fined 29000 lei for practicing its activity without retransmission authorization in Glodeni. The BC decided to grant them a term of 15 working days to legalize their activity.