The Press Council of the Republic of Moldova has announced the launch of the contest to provide the National Journalistic Ethics and Professional Deontology Award 2017 that is open to all the media outlets of Moldova. The award will be handed over following monitoring involving the public and a group of experts during the year, IPN reports.
Between July 4 and August 4, 2017, the media outlets can field themselves or can be proposed by media consumers (any consumer of media products or any institution/organization/company of Moldova, regardless of the area of activity and the form of ownership) or by a group of experts constituted by the Press Council for the purpose. The candidates can be fielded by an email letter sent to the Secretariat of the Press Council, by an ordinary letter sent to the Council’s head office or by filling out and sending the standard form available at www.mediaforum.md. The Press Council will examine the proposed candidates and will present the list of participants in the contest by a press release.
At the second stage, during August 16 – November 15, 2017, the visitors of the online platform www.mediaforum.md will be able to give points to the candidates. The votes of the public will be recommendatory, not mandatory for the Press Council members, who will take the final decision whether to confer the award or not. The contest regulations specify criteria that can increase or decrease the points scored by each of the media outlets, such as: signing by the candidate organization of the Journalist’s Deontological Code of Moldova, number of complaints against the editorial staff and how the Press Council’s decision were implemented following the examination of complaints.
At the third stage of the contest, during November 15-25, 2017, the Press Council will total the points scored by the participants and will compile the list of finalists. By December 1, 2017, there will be published the list of three media outlets with the highest score accumulated from the public and the experts and members of the Press Council. At the last stage, in a special meeting that will be held behind closed doors, the Press Council will take a decision as to the conferring of the National Journalistic Ethics and Professional Deontology Award 2017.
The regulations of the contest and the procedure for fielding candidates are available at www.mediaforum.md, through the banner “Propose the editorial staff that deserves!”, direct link: http://mediaforum.md/ro/aplicare_candidatura/premiul_national
As the organizer, the Press Council can decide not to give the award if it reaches the conclusion that none of the media outlets deserves it. The media outlet that wins the award will be unable to take part in the contest during five years of the year when it gets it. The Council can decide to withdraw the award conferred the previous years if it determines that the laureates constantly violate the deontological norms and the provisions of the Journalist’s Deontological Code of Moldova.
The National Journalistic Ethics and Professional Deontology Award was instituted by the Press Council in 2015 to promote high-quality journalism and good journalistic practices. The previous years the winners were the office in Chisinau of Radio Free Europe (2015) and the portal Anticoruptie.md (2016)
