The Kishinev radio station Antena-S has been warned by the Coordinated Council for Television and Radio for the content of one of its shows “Hyde Park,” which incites ethnic hatred and violence, according to an article in the June 17, 2003 issue of “Press-Obozrenie.” A much longer article in the local newspaper Nezavisimaya Moldova on June 18, 2003 reported that “Hyde Park” host Oleg Brega “finds it appropriate to openly call on his countrymen to slaughter inconvenient people—members of the Russian, Jewish and other minority groups living in our region.” The program, which “long ago became a platform for national-extremist forces,” has not been shut down because it is “backed by very influential people,” according to the Nezavisimaya Moldova article. In one broadcast, Mr. Brega allegedly expressed regret that Hitler’s plans for a “Final Solution” did not come to their full fruition. He compared Russians to “filth” and then said on the air: “We know whom the Germans wanted to exterminate: communism, and there were several nations that bothered them on the face of the earth. It’s a real shame that they didn’t destroy them!”

The article ended with a sharp criticism of the Coordinated Council for Television and Radio for its “soft” punishment of the radio station—a warning is inappropriate given the clear violation of a law prohibiting the incitement of ethnic hatred, the author of the article argued.

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