The courts recently dismissed Jurnal TV’s appeal against the decision of the Broadcasting Council (BC) to fine the TV station for committing a deviation from the electoral legislation. The sanction was applied in connection with an edition of the program “Ora de ras” from May 2023, which targeted Chisinau Mayor Ion Ceban and was broadcast in rerun on October 8, during the election campaign.
The decision challenged by Jurnal TV was issued at the BC meeting of October 13, when the complaint of the National Alternative Movement (MAN) party was examined. The party accused the media outlet of violating the requirements regarding the coverage of the election campaign and of “making denigrating and slanderous accusations” against the MAN party leader Ion Ceban.
The BC monitoring report did not attest to deviations from the obligation to ensure the correct information of the public, but found that Jurnal TV violated the legal provisions prohibiting media outlets from broadcasting shows referring to electoral competitors, if these programs were not included in the statement on editorial policy.
In defense, Jurnal TV representatives argued that the monitored edition of the program “Ora de ras” was originally broadcast in May, when Ion Ceban did not have the quality of electoral competitor, “being only a mayor”, and the material has no relation to his electoral quality.
At the meeting of October 13, the BC member Eugeniu Ribca said that the situation under consideration was not expressly and predictably regulated in the legislation. “On the one hand, I want to give justice to the petitioner’s representative for the fact that this category of broadcasts was not included in electoral programs – which is absurd. (…) However, ( … ) what if, possibly, a sanction is applied today and tomorrow this provider addresses us with a request to include ‘Ora de ras’ in electoral programs. We have five categories of audiovisual programs in which ‘Ora de ras’ is certainly not included,” Ribca argued.
The decision to sanction Jurnal TV with a fine of 10,000 MDL was made with the vote of five members of the BC out of the six present.
Jurnal TV’s appeal against the sanction imposed by the BC was dismissed by the Chisinau Court of Appeal on October 19, and the Supreme Court of Justice dismissed the media outlet’s appeal on October 24.