TV Channels’ Appeal against the Decision According to Which the CES Suspended Their Broadcasting Licenses in December 2022 Is Rejected by the Court of Original Jurisdiction

The court of original jurisdiction rejected the appeal filed by the six TV channels whose licenses were suspended by the Commission for Exceptional Situations (CES) in December 2022. The decision to suspend the TV channels’ activity was taken by the CES “in order to protect the national information space and to prevent the risk of disinformation.”

Primul in Moldova, Accent TV, TV6, Orhei TV, NTV Moldova, and RTR Moldova channels separately contested the CES decision in court a day after the Commission issued an order on suspending their broadcasting licenses during the state of emergency. Initially, the channels acting as plaintiffs filed their applications to Chisinau Court of Appeal, the competent court which examines appeals against normative provisions.

The magistrates unified the six cases into one and sent it for examination to Chisinau Court, Rascani Headquarters, for the reason that the CES order was an individual administrative act, not a normative one. Hence, appeals against such a document had to be examined by the court of original jurisdiction.

Pursuant to the decision dated January 9, 2023, Grigorii Cazacu, Chisinau Court magistrate, stated that the CES order was not an individual administrative act, but a normative one, and had to be contested at the Court of Appeal. Consequently, the trial court judge declared a negative conflict of jurisdiction, suspended the examination of the case, and referred the file to the Supreme Court of Justice.

The Supreme Court of Justice stated that the case was nevertheless within the jurisdiction of the trial court.

After this ping-pong between the courts, the case was referred to the magistrate Grigorii Cazacu from Chisinau Court once again.

On December 28, 2023, more than a year after the licenses were suspended, the judge rejected the complaint filed by the representatives of Primul in Moldova, Accent TV, TV6, Orhei TV, NTV Moldova, and RTR Moldova channels as unfounded. The motivated decision was published on February 1, 2024.

The decision can be appealed against by the media providers concerned at Chisinau Court of Appeal.