The members of the Broadcasting Council (BC) voted unanimously on Friday, August 9, to sanction the companies “ILK HALK TELEVIZIONU” Ltd. and “Oguzsatlink” Ltd. of the Gagauz region for retransmission of banned programs from the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, as well as for activity without the required documents – broadcasting license and retransmission authorization. Both companies retransmit news and movie programs with military content from TV channels “Первый канал,” “Россия 1”, “Россия 24”, “Беларусь 24”, “МИР 24,” “РБК,” and “Победа” – prohibited by law.
The BC fined them 100,000 lei each and gave them ten working days to stop these programs’ retransmission. The two companies were fined 30,000 lei each for activity without a retransmission authorization.
At the same time, “ILK HALK TELEVIZIONU” Ltd. and “Oguzsatlink” Ltd. broadcast the television media service “Перрвый народный,” owned by “ILK HALK TELEVIZIONU” Ltd., without a broadcasting license issued by the BC. The company was fined 30,000 lei and had ten working days to eliminate the violations.
At the same time, the Distributor Authorization and Control Department of the BC found out that the payment orders for television services were issued to subscribers by other economic agents, “WEBGOLD” SRL and “INFOLINK” Ltd.
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“Oguzsatlink” Ltd. and “ILK HALK TELEVIZIONU” Ltd. did not respond to the Broadcasting Council’s request and explain their stamp usage on payment orders issued to subscribers.
The Broadcasting Council will refer the matter to the competent bodies in connection with the illegal activity (retransmission of audiovisual media services) without holding a retransmission authorization and violation of Article 17 on the protection of the national audiovisual space and ensuring information security by “ILK HALK TELEVIZIONU” SRL in mun. Comrat, UTA Gagauzia, and the broadcasting of the audiovisual television media service “Перрвый народный” without a broadcasting license by “ILK HALK TELEVIZIONU” SRL.
As a reminder, in October 2023, the CA fined the two companies 200,000 lei for violating Art. 17 para. (4) lit. a) of the Code of Audiovisual Media Services. This article prohibits media service distributors from retransmitting audiovisual television programs with informative, analytical, military, or political content produced outside of EU member states, the United States, Canada, or states that have ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television, except for films and entertainment programs without militaristic content.