Former Antena C employees ask new government to reexamine sale of radio station

Time has come to discover the truth and restore the good name of Antena C, said former employees of the institution, demanding that the new government should reexamine how the former municipal radio station and the television channel Euro TV were sold. Wearing white ribbons, former employees of Antena C gathered in front of the radio station's building on October 5 and held a news conference to remind the people that the two institutions have been privatized abusively, with serious violations of the legislation. The former employees demand that the Parliament and the Government create a special commission that would investigate the privatization of the two media outlets so as to avoid Moldova's conviction by the ECHR. The journalists were dismissed, but they did not abandon the idea of wining a victory and hope that they will obtain the review of the legal procedure in the new political conditions, said the institution's former director Vasile State. In this connection, he reminded that Antena C, which was considered one of the most professional and impartial media outlets, was subjected to attacks by the former Communist authorities after 2002. “When the politicians saw they cannot control these institutions, they decided to buy them,” State said, adding that they were transformed into propaganda instruments of the political parties. “The new Government declared publicly that they will strictly observe the law and we hope they will keep their word,” said the former deputy director of the station Ecaterina Stratan. She stressed that the former employees appealed to national courts, but their applications were rejected. Therefore, in September 2008 they lodged an application with the European Court of Human Rights. During the conference, the current director of Anten C Veaceslav Satnic went out of the building and said the event was held illegally, by order of the Alliance for European Integration, which is thus exerting pressure on the 'free press'. Late in 2006, after the Communist and Christian-Democratic MPs passed a new Broadcasting Code that bans local radio and TV channels, the coalition formed by the Communist and Christian-Democratic councilors in the Chisinau Council decided to sell the two media organizations even if the employees, the civil society and the then Opposition protested vehemently. The given decisions and the sale of Antena C and Euro TV were described as abusive and illegal. A large part of the employees appealed the decisions to court, but the court ruled against them. During the electoral campaign for the local elections of June 2007, the parties from the former Opposition promised they would return to the decisions to sell Antena C and Euro TV made by the Chisinau Municipal Council. They did not do it though they now hold a majority in the Council.