Mass media to receive subsidies from state in Moldova

Chisinau, 18 October /MOLDPRES/ - The media institutions from Moldova will receive subsidies on behalf of the state. A fund of subsidization in the mass media sector will be created in Moldova. The report on this draft law today was approved at a meeting of the parliamentary commission for culture, education, research, youth, sport and mass media.     

The legislative initiative belongs to a group of MPs of the faction of the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS).  

The value of the financial means of the Fund will be approved annually and the allocation will be established in the state budget. It will account for 25 per cent of the budget of the national public provider of media services for the concerned year. At the same time, the Fund will be able to be completed with donations, sponsorships, grants or other financial sources which are not banned by the law.   

The mass media institutions due to benefit from subsidies on behalf of the state will be selected through a contest organized by the Culture Ministry. It will have at the basis the priority fields of subsidization, annually established through public consultations with the institutions and organizations of the civil society in the sector.  

At the same time, the media institutions due to be eligible for the providing of subsidies will have to cumulatively meet more conditions: registration in the Register of mass media institutions, observance of the deontological code, presence on the market for at least one year, lack of debts to the national public budget, lack of sanctions for the infringement of the audiovisual media services code and the deontological code of journalist.    

At the same time, the public providers of audiovisual media services, the institutions financed from the public budget, the departmental mass media institutions, the mass media institutions with advertising character and the ones founded by political parties will not be able to get subsidies.   

Photo: Parliament