The Press Council called on the Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) to penalize the radio station Jurnal FM for allowing violating the right to private life in one of its programs. The victim, who was the target of a hoax, filed a complaint to the Information Center GenderDoc-M, while the organization, for its part, informed the Press Council, IPN reports.
In the program, a man, who is of nontraditional sexual orientation, answered the questions of a sexual character put by the moderator, who presented himself as another person, live on the radio station. He provided information about his place of residence, the name and other personal data. He found out that it was a hoax only towards the end of the discussion. The same day, the program was posted on the Internet and the visitors of the website left many comments inciting hatred and violence against the sexual minorities.
The radio station’s administration, notified by the Press Council, said they didn’t violate the journalist’s deontological norms and didn’t infringe the private life of the person who was the ‘victim’ of a hoax in the humoristic program “X loves you” of July 29, 2013, and the moderator constrained the man in no way to furnish his personal data.
Attending the meeting of the Press Council Artiom Zavadovsky, who is a representative of GenderDoc-M, said the victim was affected psychologically and he considers that his rights were violated.
Press Council chairman Ludmila Andronic said the moderator of the program interfered in the private life and endangered the physical and psychical integrity of the man by making known details of his intimate life without his consent.
In its decision, the Press Council held that Jurnal FM violated the deontological norms that provide for the protection of human rights, including to private life, and asked that the radio station should penalize the authors of the program. Given the seriousness of the violations, the Press Council decided to request the BCC to examine the issue and to punish the broadcaster if it broke the Broadcasting Code. BCC member Mariana Onceanu-Hadarca said in the meeting that they will definitely analyze this case.
