The total fine of almost MDL 200,000 for insufficient local products and lack of translations into Romanian language at several TV channels
The Audiovisual Council (AC) has fined 12 TV channels with a total amount of MDL 198,000 (about EUR 9,750) for insufficient local audiovisual programs, including in Romanian language, and lack of translations or subtitles of movies. The highest fines were imposed on Cinema 1 (MDL 53,000), RTR Moldova (MDL 38,000) and PEH Moldova (MDL 35,000). Bravo TV was fined with MDL 5,000 for failure to show recordings.
The decision was taken at the AC meeting on March 2 in the context of a number of petitions (in total – 30) from the Employers Association of Broadcasters from Republic of Moldova and the proposal to monitor ex officio all TV channels that committed violations on the subject in 2021. The proposal came from AC vice-president Aneta Gonta.
The Authority randomly selected two monitoring periods (January 17-23 and January 24-30, 2022) and identified a number of violations.
Thus, following the examination of the monitoring report, Cinema 1 was fined with MDL 53,000 in total for three repeated violations (MDL 36,000 for insufficient local products, including in Romanian language, and MDL 17,000 for lack of translations). RTR Moldova was fined with MDL 38,000 in total (out of which MDL 20,000 for repeated violations of the obligation to broadcast at least 80% of local audiovisual programs in Romanian language and MDL 18,000 for repeated violations of the obligation to broadcast the required volume of local programs). PEH Moldova was fined with MDL 35,000 in total for two repeated violations (MDL 20,000 for insufficient local programs and MDL 15,000 for insufficient products in Romanian language).
ITV was fined with MDL 30,000 in total for two repeated violations. Channel 3 was fined with MDL 14,000 in total, Channel 2 – MDL 13,000 and Mega – MDL 7,000. Familia, N4, Canal 5 and NTV Moldova received warnings.
The AC said that the monitoring of Bravo TV was not possible due to the failure to submit recordings of media content and was sanctioned for this with MDL 5,000.
