National broadcaster criticized in Parliament

The national broadcasting company Teleradio-Moldova (TRM) was criticized in Parliament as “provincial, boring and outmoded”, as TRM President Constantin Marin defended the company during hearings on Tuesday attributing all the deficiencies to an austere budget, Info-Prim Neo reports. Marin was summoned for hearings in Parliament by unaffiliated MP Mihai Godea, following the repeated resignation of Angela Sirbu, the director of the national television Moldova 1, which is part of TRM. “This is a clear signal that things are moving in a wrong direction (at TRM) and that one of the few achievements of the Eurointegration Alliance to remove ideology from the national audiovisual is coming to nothing”, stated Godea. Lib-Dem MP Maria Ciobanu noted the “criminal discrepancy” between Marin's salary and the wages of ordinary employees. “Justify your salary of 30,000 lei compared to the 2,000 lei your employees get”, requested Maria Ciobanu. Her party fellow, Iurie Chiorescu accused TRM of employing either pension-aged or young and inexperienced persons. “Reform in the company is moving extremely slow. Why does TRM continue to be a provincial and outmoded television? Why haven't you found interesting faces and people like those that appear on private channels?”, asked Liberal MP Corina Fusu, herself a former host at Moldova 1. To most questions Constantin Marin replied that TRM has a small budget, of 95 million lei a year, half of which is spent on broadcasting services, current and older debts. “There's almost nothing left for development. A mid-term financing plan is now being developed. We feel sad that we have to agree with you on the provincialism thing. If we want to move on, we need to be modern in technology as well. We can't be modern operating equipment from the 1970s-80s”, declared Marin. Concerning Angela Sirbu's resignation, Constantin Marin said that, while unfortunate, the departure of a manager does not mean that there is any obstruction in the reform. “Obviously it's always sad and regrettable when someone leaves. But the company has been undergoing reform for two years now and this process needs time. This isn't a thing that happens overnight. As we said earlier, the first results will be seen in six months, but the long-term results will appear in 3 to 5 years. It's a complicated process” , said Marin. He added that his salary is way lower than 30,000 lei and that it is established not by the TRM's management but by the Broadcasting Code.