​SCANDAL AROUND TELELERADIO GAGAUZIA GROWS

The scandal around the public company “Teleradio Gagauzia” (GRT) is gaining momentum.

According to the Transnistrian media, deputy of the Gagauzia Popular Assembly Ivan Burguji announced at the Friday press conference in Comrat that judge Grigory Kolev, who took the decision about termination of the GRT Director Stepan Piron’ powers, had a material interest.

“This is why it is necessary to send all the case materials to the department for combating corruption, to address to the Supreme Court of Magistrates and to the President of Moldova with demand to dismiss this judge from function”, said he.

Talking about causes of conflict in GRT, Burguji noted that this is connected to the election campaign.

On September 22, Piron was appointed Director of the GRT TV channel by votes of six of eight broadcaster Supervisory Board members. Other two candidates for this post addressed to the local court a claim, demanding to invalidate the results of the competition.

Earlier, Gagauzia Bashkan [governor] Mikhail Formuzal criticized the company’s activity, calling it “not a Gagauzia television, but an organized criminal band of the Democratic Party of Moldova (DPM)”.

The GRT President Anna Harlamenko disagreed with this, stating that the broadcaster is objectively covering the events in the region. According to her, the Piron’s assignment led to the fact that the USA Embassy refused to provide to the company US$50 thousand, promised earlier.

Harlamenko is a close relative of Nicolai Dudoglo – Mayor of the Gagauzia capital city, known for his affiliation to the Democratic Party. Piron, who owns the local cable TV network, is supported by DPM opponents from the autonomy leadership.

On Thursday, Harlamenko organizes a press conference at Infotag on the theme of raider seizure of the broadcasting company.