Romania

[RO] New Radio and Television Law

IRIS 1998-8:1/16

Mariana Stoican

Journalist, Bucharest

The Act amending and supplementing Act No. 41/1994 on organisation and functioning of the Romanian Radio Corporation and the Romanian Television Corporation ( Lege pentru modificarea si completarea Legii nr. 41/1994 privind organizarea si functionarea Societatii Romane de Radiodifuziune si Societatii Romane de Televiziune) was published on 22 June 1998.

The long-awaited Romanian Public Television Board was established immediately on the passing of the Act, which had been the subject of protracted discussion in Parliament. (The Romanian Public Radio Board had already been set up in September 1995).

On 8 July, the Romanian Parliament elected the 13 members of the new Board by simple majority vote (itself a notable procedural change in the new version of the Act) for a four-year term.

It took just four years from the coming into force of the Act on organisation and functioning of the Romanian radio and television corporations for the Board to be appointed. During the whole of that period, public television in Romania was under interim management, both before and after the November 1996 elections, which brought a change of government.

Even now that the Board has been appointed, the situation is still not wholly regularised, since the start of the parliamentary recess made it impossible to select and appoint the Chairman of the Board and Director General from among the 13 members.

Under the Act, the Board's composition is as follows: 8 members are nominated by the main groups in parliament, and 2 members are proposed by television staff, 1 each by the President's Office and the Government, and 1 by the country's national minorities. The Chairman of the Board, who is also Director http://services.obs.coe.int/en/index.htm General, is elected by the members of the Board from among themselves, and must be confirmed by the specialised parliamentary commissions. The commissions can agree, however, on another candidate, also chosen from among the Board's members.