The Audiovisual Council (AC) has won a new case, against RTR Moldova, which went to court after it was fined 5,000 lei and was issued with six public warnings for the way in which it covered the military aggression against Ukraine. According to the Council, the fines were imposed for absence of rigor and accuracy and of balance and for intertwining of facts and opinions in the news bulletins of February 24-27, 2022 about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, IPN reports.

The AC ascertained the intertwining of facts and opinions and the lack of impartiality in the presentation of information in at least two news items broadcast on February 24, 2022. In another news article disseminated on February 25, 2022, there was detected the intertwining of facts and subjective conclusions and opinions, which unbalanced the information and suggested that Ukraine wasn’t important amidst the Ukrainian President’s calls to the international community and presented Russia as superior. Also, RTR Moldova allowed omissions in the programs broadcast in the monitored period.

The Council also won the case against NTV Moldova, which was earlier fined 10,000 lei and was issued with four public warnings for unilaterally presenting the security crisis in the region and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the news bulletins of February 24-27, 2022, without sufficient documentation and by intertwining facts and opinions.