Politics

PRESIDENT’S WORDS ARE NO OBSTACLE TO BANNING RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA IN MOLDOVA – SPEAKER

13 octomber, 2017

President Dodon’s statements cannot prevent the parliamentary majority from adopting the law on prohibiting the Russian propaganda, presumes Moldovan Parliament Chairman Andrian Candu.

Speaking at a news conference following the Friday’s joint Parliament/Government meeting, Candu said that problems may appear perhaps at promulgation of the law, so this may delay the document’s coming into effect.

“However, there fortunately is a clear-cut constitutional procedure: when a document is approved by the Parliament for a second time after the president’s first refusal to promulgate it, the head of state must sign the paper without an objection”, said Candu.

“Also, we are waiting for the Constitutional Court’s judgment concerning the appointment of a defense minister. In all the rest, we have got used to Dodon’s statements, including the ones that his Party of Socialists will win a majority at the parliamentary election next year”, said the Speaker.

Prime Minister Pavel Filip tried to habitually assure the journalists that “the Moldovan Government and Parliament never promote laws or anything against Russia or any other country” and that “All our legislative initiatives are aimed exclusively at the good of Moldova citizens”.

Infotag’s dossier: The much-disputable bill on ensuring the security of the Moldovan information area and on prohibiting foreign propaganda on the Moldovan television was registered with the Moldovan Parliament Secretariat in June 2017. Its main idea and destination is that local broadcasters [who earn fortunes on retransmitting very popular Russian television channels and, accordingly, on local ads on such channels] will now be prohibited to transmit “news and information-analytical programs from countries that have not ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television. Russia is the only country of all the rest ones available on the local TV screens, which has not ratified the Convention.

As already reported by Infotag, the bill on amending the Audiovisual Code of Moldova emerged on the scene all of a sudden yet in the afternoon of April 15, 2015. Its authors – a group of deputies from the Liberal Democratic Party and Democratic Party – were looking forward to railroading the bill in parliament already on the following morning. However, due to a loud scandal that broke out practically immediately after that news and due to a very negative reaction of the civil society, the discussion of the bill was put off.

The thing is, one of the chief objectives of the document was “to shield the domestic television and radio broadcasting from foreign propaganda and thus to ensure Moldova’s information security”. Moldovan journalists perceived that idea as the authorities’ attempt to introduce censorship and restrict freedom of expression.

Soon after, the Liberal Democrats revoked their signatures from under the document, stating they would write a bill of their own. The Democrats said they would simplify the initial bill and discuss it with civil society representatives. Since then, everybody has been silent about the Code amendment idea – no new initiatives, no public discussions, nor actually comments.

The country’s media watchdog, the Audiovisual Coordinating Council, has been long proposing to prohibit the transmission of the Russian channels’ information-analytical programs under the pretext that Russia allegedly interferes into Moldova’s home affairs and runs propagandist broadcasting against the republic.

President Dodon stated many a time he would not promulgate this law, “like any other document aimed against the Russian Federation”, partnership with which he is trying to restore.

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