TV in Moldova - another proof of a corrupted system

The new democratic alliance that came to power last year in this country, has proclaimed European integration to be its main political priority. That seems to be an enormous task, especially taking into account the depth of spiritual and cultural integration of Moldovans into the CIS orbit of influence. I personally even wouldn’t try to change that, because Moldova is in a way a special place, different from Romania, on one side, and different from Ukraine and Russia, on the other. Moldovans themselves, especially business people, are always stressing out that Moldova is ideally situated in between two continents and two cultures and it should become a perfect bridgehead for businesses going in two directions: from South East Europe to former Soviet Union and vice verso.

Right, Moldova is special and this is confirmed by many foreigners visiting this nice welcoming country with goodhearted people, excellent foods and wines, picturesque countryside.

It is also very special because being a small nation, due to various historical reasons, it has become a trade-off instrument in big geopolitical games and commercial interests. Maybe because of this, maybe because of other reasons, but quite special in Moldova is another phenomena, which points to a high degree of a distorted and corrupted system.

If you open the weekly TV programs in the newspapers, you’d notice that in most of them the Russian channels ORT, NTV, CTC almost always go first. Historically it was so, and these programs are still the mostly viewed, having a lot of influence on people’s minds and perceptions.

What’s really special and quite strange, is the way these Russian programs are broadcasted in Moldova.

Have you seen in Europe, that BBC, or ZDF, or RTL, or ORF, or RAI, for example, would deliberately give to another local company, sometimes completely new and unknown, the rights for re-transmitting and remaking their channel?! (I am not talking about cable or satellite TV providers/operators, which is a normal competitive business in any country.) The issue is not only about huge amounts of advertising money at stake, which are later divided among those who cover such business. Above that, these companies create their own small studios and insert into the main frame their news and entertainment programs, which frankly are quite poor and would not withstand any serious challenge and open competition from professional TV channels. And for such a business, which doesn’t require much creativity or efforts, or investments - but just a high political cover from TV channels owners and inside the country - these canny guys are getting a good piece of advertising pie, estimated at about 30 mln Euros per annum.

Basically, some wheeler-dealers are riding the good reputation and brand names of well-known TV channels benefiting from their selective and subjective will, and high political cover in the country. Such “channels” as Prime, Tv7, CTC-Moldova, NIT, are not only completely distorting the time of broadcasting, artificially delaying it for hours, but are also brainwashing the TV viewers for the account of their owners. Strangely, mostly Russian TV channels are involved in this schemings.

It is not right, because it speculates on someone else’s fame and respect, and this has become quite obvious since the recent launch of such new TV channels as JurnalTV and PUBLIKA TV, which are really integer and build up their own fame and reputation depending on the good quality of the programs they produce, and not on corrupted use of someone else’s brand name and intellectual property. It is not fair, because it is not within the principles of normal market competition, maybe that’s why the national TV channel Moldova 1 is losing its grounds and is basically not watchable. It’s wrong and corrupted, and the sooner the ruling alliance will bring this to European normality, the more credible their reformist and democratic aspirations would be.

But try change it and make it fair now before rapidly approaching elections, and you’d be surprised to see what strings will be pulled and whose interests are at stake.