PARLIAMENT TO PERMIT RADIO AND TV TO USE NAMES ACCORDING TO NORMS OF LANGUAGE OF BROADCASTING

Moldovan television channels and radio stations will be permitted to use the names of populated areas and other geographical objects etc. in conformity with the scientific norms of their broadcasting languages. A bill to this effect was approved by the Moldovan Parliament in a first reading on Thursday.

Upon the final adoption of the draft amendments proposed by the Socialist faction, the Russian-language broadcasters will be permitted to pronounce the Moldovan capital's name the way the Russian nation has been pronouncing it for centuries - 'Kishiniov', and not 'Kishineu', as the name sounds in the Romanian language and as the Audiovisual Coordinating Council (ACC) demands this from all spoken media outlets.

Socialist MP Vlad Batrincea stated during the bill presentation: "Not a single state organ or agency is eligible to impose criteria other than scientific ones upon broadcasters in a democratic state".

"When our Moldovan-language media issue news or other programs, they call the capital of Great Britain 'Londra', i.e. according to the norms of our native language, and not 'London', as this must be according to the norms of English. Look how we call the capital of France - in the form used in our native language. So, we have no right to force other languages to use our pronunciation norms. But the problem is: our media watchdog [Audiovisual Coordinating Council, ACC], on the basis of the regulations it writes itself, imposes the pronunciation norms of Romanian onto other languages.

MP Maria Ciobanu of the Liberal Democratic Party said that in a meeting of the profiled Standing Committee, scientists from the Linguistics Institute of the Moldovan Academy of Sciences spoke out resolutely against this bill "and substantiated their position", but she did not elaborate on it.

In the first reading today, the bill was approved by deputies representing the Party of Socialists, the Communist Party and the ruling Democratic Party.