“Why don't you name things? I ask you in a Liberal-like style: Do you want to get rid of Todercan? You must modify the Broadcasting Code if you want to dismiss me.” This is how Valentin Todercan, the president of the national public broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova (TRM), reacted to the criticism leveled at him by MPs and representatives of the civil society, referring to the work of the public company, Info-Prim Neo reports. Valentin Toderca was heard at a meeting of the parliamentary commission for culture, education, youth and mass media on October 15. The public meeting was attended by representatives of the Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC), several members of the Supervisory Board (SB), the administration of the national public broadcaster, representatives of international organizations, civil society leaders and others. In his speech, Valentin Todercan spoke about the successes of the company and blamed the failures on the insufficiency of funds. He did not agree with the assertions that the company was in a deplorable condition. “I do not want to justify myself, but I can say that we increased the broadcast schedule from 11 hours to 24 hours and installed modern digital equipment.” Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board Mariana Slapac complained that the SB became nonfunctional because only five persons attend its meetings instead of nine. “One of the major problems is the financing. In order to develop the TRM, we analyze thoroughly all the necessary costs, approve a sum, but the Parliament adopts only the fifth part of the planned budget,” she said. The BCC president Gheorghe Gorincioi said that “we cannot be satisfied with the results achieved by the public broadcaster” and that the BCC warned several times the TV channel Moldova 1 over non-observance of pluralism of opinion in the news programs during the two election campaigns of 2009. “It is an attempt to shift the blame onto someone else,” the head of the parliamentary commission for culture, education, youth and mass media Corina Fusu said, commenting on the speeches of the three persons. Vasile State, expert of the Electronic Press Association (APEL), spoke about the recent eight reports on the monitoring of Moldova 1 and stressed that some of the politicians were favored in the news bulletins. According to him, the Communist leader Vladimir Voronin, the former President of Moldova, appeared in the news stories more often than other leaders. The president of APEL Alexandru Dorogan said the situation at TRM can be improved by modifying the legislation. He presented the list of reference points for the public broadcaster drawn up by representatives of the OSCE and the Council of Europe in 2004. The list was also recommended by Vladimir Voronin. “These recommendations are still valid, but they are ignored by the public broadcaster,” Dorogan said. MP Oleg Serebrian, a member of the PDM and of the commission, asked Valentin Todercan why Moldova 1 ignored some of the news conference of the PDM and other parties, but covered all the press conference of the PCRM. “It depends on the topic. Not all the messages are useful to the public and the TRM chooses what to broadcast,” Todercan said. “The conferences held by the head of state are always of interest,” Moldova 1director Adela Raileanu added. After the hearings, the parliamentary commission for culture, education, youth and mass media will prepare a report and render it in the Parliament at one of the plenary sittings.