CHISINAU, 17 Dec TV company RTR Moldova appealed against the decision in court Commission for Emergency Situations (CES) of Moldova on a ban on broadcasting.
«RTR Moldova considers this decision (CoES) illegal, adopted in the political and corrupt interests of the current government and the media holding (Vladimir) Plahotniuc (businessman, ex-leader of the Democratic Party, now hiding abroad. — Note ed.)», — the statement of the TV company, which was published in its social networks, is said.
The text also notes that Plahotniuc's resources violated antitrust laws and created cartel arrangements in the market.
«But the CoES deliberately ignores this indisputable evidence. <…> Behind these actions are the corrupt interests of Plahotniuc's media holding and individuals from the ruling party who want to establish a monopoly not only in the editorial policy of the media, but also in the Moldovan TV advertising market», the company added, noting that the RTR Moldova TV channel never belonged to or was affiliated with any persons included in the sanctions lists of the EU, the USA and other countries.
In the next 72 hours, the court must consider the application of the company.
Earlier, the head of the Ministry of Justice of Moldova, Sergei Litvinenko, said that the country's government had developed a draft law «Magnitsky-Moldova Law», which provides for the imposition of sanctions against individuals and legal entities, as well as against the mass media. According to the document, the Council of Television and Radio of Moldova will be able to revoke licenses from companies owned by or associated with persons affected by the sanctions. Also, the council will be able to revoke the license if the TV channel promotes the image of those included in the list of sanctions.
On Friday, the Moldovan authorities suspended the license of the opposition and leading Russian-language TV channels Primul in Moldova, RTR Moldova, Accent TV, NTV Moldova, TV6, Orhei TV, which allegedly cover information about events in the country and Ukraine in bad faith, which leads to the risk of disinformation. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow views Chisinau's decision as an act of political censorship, adding that such actions are an outrage on the principle of media pluralism and a flagrant violation of the right to freedom of access to information. Moscow also qualifies this as «a cynical infringement of the rights of national minorities.»