Members of the parliamentary commission on media formed a working group to work out a bill, which should set rules for relations between broadcasters and cable operators. This decision was caused by the recent exclusion of TV channels RTR Moldova, Accent TV and Jurnal TV from cable networks, as well as subsequent protests.

At the same time, the Commission held hearings upon this exclusion. The chairman Chiril Lucinschi believes that the conflict in this area has been caused with absence of clear rules in the legislation about the relations between cable operators and broadcasters.

The Working Group consists of 10 MPs. The parliamentary commission is going to discuss all relevant proposals within two weeks. Afterwards, MPs are going to amend the Broadcasting Code.

On the night of Jan.13, a few private providers of cable television excluded the TV channel Jurnal TV from their network. Previously, RTR Moldova and Accent TV were excluded by several providers, including national operator in the telecommunications Moldtelecom.

This led to protests initiated by journalists. The head of the EU Delegation to Moldova Pirkka Tapiola, the U.S. Embassy and the OSCE Representative for Media Dunja Mijatovic made statements regarding this issue. Later, one of the largest cable operators renewed broadcasting of Accent TV and Jurnal TV.

Source: Media-azi.md