OSCE Mission to Moldova holds conference on reform of public broadcaster

CHISINAU, 23 September 2011 – Reform of the public broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova was the focus of a high-level conference held today in Chisinau by the OSCE Mission to Moldova. The discussions’ conclusions and recommendations will help further restructuring of Teleradio-Moldova. 

“We welcome efforts to make Teleradio-Moldova a modern, pluralistic, professional and independent public service broadcaster,” said Jan Plešinger, Deputy Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova, in his opening remarks. “The Moldovan state must guarantee the public broadcaster’s editorial independence, while at the same time ensuring its accountability to the public and providing it with adequate public funds.”

The management of Teleradio-Moldova presented its business goals and discussed an action plan on how to reach those goals.

“The evaluation of three restructuring options – slow, progressive and radical – showed that radical reform is the most advantageous from the point of view of both technological requirements and the efficiency of investments,” explained Constantin Marin, the President of Teleradio-Moldova. “This reform plan creates a chance for the public broadcaster to become a truly public, competitive and modern media institution.”

“Public service broadcasting is part of the arsenal of promoting democracy,” said Roland Bless, Principal Adviser to the OSCE Representative for Freedom of the Media. “We hope Teleradio-Moldova will make full use of all available technologies to provide high quality programming to the widest audience possible; and we hope the Moldovan state will create the conditions to help make it happen.”

The event brought together Government and Parliament officials, development partners, non-governmental organizations, media and other local and international stakeholders. The management and supervisory board of the regional public broadcaster Teleradio-Gagauzia also participated in the conference in order to facilitate a transfer of Teleradio-Moldova’s experience and best practices to the Gagauzia regional public broadcaster.

Drawing on lessons learnt across Europe, participants created a roadmap for restructuring Teleradio-Moldova with a particular emphasis on the role of the state in the reform process.