New Broadcasting Code can make BCC’s work more efficient, Gheorghe Gorincioi

The chairman of the Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) Gheorghe Gorincioi said a new Broadcasting Code would make the work of the broadcasting regulator more efficient. The document should exclude the overlapping of the powers of the Broadcasting Coordination Council and the Central Election Commission (CEC) in election campaigns. It is also necessary to clearly define the conditions in which the broadcasters that break the law are liable to penalties. The Electronic Press Association, in partnership with the relevant parliamentary commission, has drafted a bill to amend the Broadcasting Code. Contacted by Info-Prim Neo, Gheorghe Gorincioi said he did not see the bill, but an improved Broadcasting Code is indeed necessary as the existing document contains shortcomings that block the Council’s work. “It is not clear in what cases and for what derogations the penalties can be imposed. Related situations appeared in the period of the constitutional referendum and the early legislative elections, when some of the broadcasters flouted the regulations concerning the covering of the election campaign and the BCC could not penalize them as the Broadcasting Code did not regulate such situations,” Gorincioi said. According to him, in no other state does the CEC govern the work of the broadcasting organizations. The Commission organizes the elections, but does not take part in the approval of the regulations concerning the covering of the election campaign. Gheorghe Gorincioi also said that the Supervisory Board of the national public broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova should be removed as it is useless. The broadcaster should be divided into two autonomous organizations - Radio Moldova and TV Moldova 1 – as the obligations, tasks and views are overlapping and do not allow modernizing the two institutions.