RTR Moldova and Bravo TV Renounce Their Broadcasting Licenses
The Broadcasting Council (BC) has announced it unanimously approved the withdrawal of the broadcasting licenses for such channels as RTR Moldova and Bravo TV upon the TV media service founders’ request. The decision was taken at the meeting held on December 28.
According to the institution, on December 20, the TV-Communicatii Grup Company notified the BC about its refusal to broadcast the RTR Moldova service, and on December 21, the Bravo TV company informed it about the same decision.
RTR Moldova’s license was suspended according to the decision of the Commission for Exceptional Situations of December 16, 2022. The decision was taken “in order to protect the national information space and to prevent the risk of disinformation by spreading fake information or attempts to manipulate public opinion.” In addition, it invokes “multiple statements from the monitoring reports of the Broadcasting Council regarding the breaches of the Code of Audiovisual Media Services of the Republic of Moldova, implicitly application of sanctions for the lack of correct information while covering the national events, and also the war in Ukraine.”
The BC specifies that, in 2022, RTR Moldova had such sanctions as seven public warnings and 18 fines in the total amount of 178500 lei for breaching the audiovisual legislation, mostly the provisions on providing correct information and the lack of local programs.
Besides, in the last two years, Bravo TV had nine fines in the amount of 141500 lei for insufficient amount of local programs and unjustified interruption of broadcasting.
