Competition for the head of TRM postponed. ISS requests further checks on candidates

The Supervisory Board (SB) of the public broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova (TRM) has decided, at today’s meeting, to postpone the interview stage of the competition to appoint the organisation’s director-general. The SB Chair, Arcadie Gherasim, stated that the decision was taken after the Director of the Information and Security Service (ISS), Alexandru Musteața, requested that further checks be carried out on the candidates entered in the competition. The proposal to postpone the interviews was supported by five members of the Supervisory Board, whilst two voted against.

During the meeting, Arcadie Gherasim explained that the request comes against the backdrop of an intensifying hybrid war, manifested through disinformation campaigns and external interference targeting, amongst other things, the Republic of Moldova’s information space. According to him, the ISS considers it necessary to carry out additional preventive checks during the selection process for candidates for the post of Director-General of Teleradio-Moldova.

The ISS’s request is set out in a letter signed by the agency’s director, Alexandru Musteața, as reported by Moldova 1. “Given the strategic role of the national public media service provider in ensuring information security, I propose that, prior to the admission of candidates to the competition, the list of applicants be submitted to the ISS for the purpose of conducting competence checks. In this regard, with a view to eliminating the causes and conditions that could contribute to a threat to state security, we ask that you ensure the necessary measures are taken to establish this mechanism for the selection of candidates and institutional cooperation, with the timely submission of the information required to carry out the checks,” the letter states.

Following the ISS’s request, the four candidates admitted to the competition will be required to complete a questionnaire drawn up by the Information and Security Service. Candidates who refuse to complete it will not be able to take part in the interview stage. The ISS is to submit the results of the checks within a maximum of 30 days. Upon receipt of these results, the Supervisory Board will convene, within two to three days, for a further meeting to set the date for the interviews as part of the competition to appoint the Director-General of Teleradio-Moldova.

The interviews, scheduled for today, 17 July, were to be the final stage of the competition to appoint the new Director-General of TRM. Four candidates who had been shortlisted for the competition were due to attend the interviews: Dorin Scobioală, Ecaterina Cheptanaru, Sergiu Sandulescu and Andrei Zapșa.

The post of Director-General of TRM has been vacant since Vlad Țurcanu’s resignation, which was announced amid controversy surrounding the Republic of Moldova’s jury vote in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026.