Orhei TV Channel Is Deprived of the Broadcasting License
At the meeting held on Friday, March 3, the Broadcasting Council (BC) decided not to extend the Orhei TV channel’s broadcasting license for the reason that, according to the authority, the channel had committed several breaches of the general concept. Orhei TV is one of the six providers whose licenses were suspended during the state of emergency at the end of last year.
Media Resurse, the company which owns the channel, requested to prolong the broadcasting license on February 15, 2023, following the expiration of its term of validity. However, the BC rejected the application.
In a press release, the BC specifies that, on December 2, 2022, Orhei TV was fined 5 000 lei for non-compliance with the broadcasting quotas for its own production and European works. The monitoring in question was taking place for seven consecutive days, on October 17-23, and the calculations for the program service structure were based on the recordings presented by the TV channels in question. The final data demonstrated that both of them had committed the breaches related to their own products, audiovisual products from other producers, retransmitted/re-broadcast/purchased programs, and percentages intended for European audiovisual products.
The representatives of the Council explain that, according to the provisions of the Code of Audiovisual Media Services, the BC “shall prolong the term of validity of the broadcasting license if the following requirements are cumulatively met: a) the media service provider has filed a request to prolong the validity of the broadcasting license within the terms stipulated in para. (1); b) the media service provider has complied with the concept of the (general) principle, the type, and the structure of the audiovisual media service stipulated in the content of the broadcasting license; c) the media service provider was not sanctioned for serious breaches listed in Art. 84 para. (8), (81), (9), (91), (10)–(103) of this code.”
On December 16, 2022, the Commission for Exceptional Situations decided to suspend the broadcasting licenses for the term of the state of emergency, “for protecting the national information space and preventing the risk of disinformation by spreading false information or attempts to manipulate public opinion, based on the list of individuals and legal persons subject to the international sanctions included in Annex No 1 to the Provision of the Commission for Exceptional Situations No 45/2022 and the available information on the control they have over specific media service providers.” In addition, Media Azi wrote about the fact that, after they addressed the court, the six channels’ files were transmitted from the Court of Appeal to Chisinau Court. Both institutions affirm that it is the competence of the other authority to examine the case, and the solution will be offered by the Supreme Court of Justice.
