None of the ten TV channels monitored by the Independent Journalism Center (CJI) covered the election campaign correctly and impartially during July 2-9 so that 100% of the journalistic content complied with the deontological norms and legal provisions, executive director of the Independent Journalism Center Nadine Gogu said when presenting the last report on the monitoring of the media in the campaign prior to the snap parliamentary elections in a news conference at IPN.

According to Nadine Gogu, Moldova 1 slightly favored the Electoral Bloc of the Communists and the Socialists, but in several news items presented the representatives of PAS and President Maia Sandu in a negative light.

NTV Moldova favored considerably BeCS and disfavored PAS and Maia Sandu. The same tendency was noticed on Primul în Moldova. Prime TV favored the Shor Party and slightly the Electoral Bloc of the Communists and the Socialists by the way in which the covered subjects were chosen.

Publika TV also slightly favored the Electoral Bloc of the Communists and the Socialists by selecting the covered subjects. RTR Moldova favored the Shor Party in most of its content.

Jurnal TV and Pro TV disfavored BeCS, as TV 8 did, even if the latter had less disfavoring content. TV 6 favored greatly the Shor Party and disfavored PAS and President Maia Sandu.

Nadine Gogu said that in the period the Audiovisual Council issued only one monitoring report, being practically inactive. The report was presented 11 days before the elections and only one penalty was imposed based on this even if the report rather conclusively shows the tendencies to favor or disfavor particular contenders. “However, the Audiovisual Council decided not to apply the law and invoked the freedom of expression. We wonder what’s the goal of such reports that serve no useful purpose, but only spend budget funds,” stated Nadine Gogu.

According to her, the Audiovisual Council didn’t take any punitive action and the picture on the ten TV channels monitored by CJI probably changed the last week also because the Council didn’t do its job.

All the CJI reports can be found on media-azi.md and on mediactritica.md. The monitoring of the media in the election campaign covered the period between June 1 and July 11, 2021, being conducted with support from the Office of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Moldova. The reports were produced as part of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections of Moldova.