The representatives of the MIR interstate television sued the Ministry of Finance after the authorities had not transferred 2.6 million lei which were to be allocated to the company from the state budget in 2022. The first court session on this case will be held in November 2023. The director of the institution affirms he regrets the decisions taken by the authorities on suspending the funding and terminating the agreements on creating and activity of the channel.
According to the reply from the Ministry of Finance to Media Azi, the MIR representatives have filed a lawsuit against the institution on October 12, 2022, citing that, though the Republic of Moldova was supposed to pay the amount of almost 3.5 million lei to the interstate TV last year, only 871000 lei were transferred. Therefore, “the MIR ITRC representation, in its lawsuit, requests the obligation of the Ministry of Finance to transfer the financial resources amounting to 2613.0 thousand lei from the state budget for 2022.”
Vladimir Arachelov, State Secretary of the Ministry, specifies in his response that the money did not reach the company’s accounts because, during the state of emergency established in March 2022, the MIR ITRC representation suspended re-broadcasting of all the programs initially produced in the states which had not ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television in the territory of the Republic of Moldova, which was the reason for suspending the financing issues for the expenses in question.
According to the data published on the National Court Portal, the first hearing of the case at the Chisinau Court, Rîșcani Headquarters, is scheduled for November 29, 2023.
Stanislav Vîjga, director of the representative office of the MIR Company in Moldova, specified for Media Azi that “there is a decision on allocation of these resources, a decision that has not been cancelled; therefore, it is still valid.”
Meanwhile, on April 4, the Government decided to stop paying its contributions for the MIR interstate television, and on April 19, the Cabinet of Ministers approved denunciation of the agreements on creating and activity of the institution. Currently, the Mir TV and Mir 24 channels common for the CIS area have no broadcasting licenses issued by the Broadcasting Council; hence, they are not regarded as media service providers in the Republic of Moldova. “It is every state’s sovereign right to decide on the presence or absence of international projects or taking part in certain agreements. We regret the decision, but we do not condemn it,” Vîjga has told us. He adds that the representative office in Moldova has not been annulled yet, and the editorial board still keeps working. “All the parties concerned should be notified of the withdrawal from these agreements; we should be notified of the liquidation and have a clear idea of what will happen next – which institution will be in charge of the process, according to which provisions, etc.,” he specifies.