Eight TV channels of Moldova deviated from the professional norms in the presidential election period. Such a conclusion is contained in a monitoring report compiled by the Association of Independent Press (API) and the Independent Journalism Center (CJI). The report shows that only four of the 12 monitored TV channels didn’t commit violations.
In a news conference at IPN, CJI executive director Nadine Gogu said that even if the media outlets were monitored before the start of the election campaign, between September 15 and 29, the 12 TV channels broadcast a larger number of news items that were electoral in character, directly or indirectly.
According to Nadine Gogu, the private TV channels with national coverage Prime TV, Canal 2, Canal 3 and Publika TV broadcast a large number of materials that promoted the government. The Democratic Party’s candidate for President Marian Lupu benefitted from the largest coverage at these channels. The candidate of the Politic Party “Platform Dignity and Truth” Andrei Nastase was often presented on these channels, but mainly in a negative light. Dumitru Chubashenko, the candidate of “Our Party”, was most often disadvantaged on the four TV channels.
The report shows the channel with national coverage Jurnal TV allotted a lot of airtime to the activities of Andrei Nastase, this being presented principally in a positive context. The representatives of the PDM, including Marian Lupu, were presented in a negative context on this channel.
NTV Moldova and Accent TV favored the Socialist leader Igor Dodon both by the airtime allotted for live broadcasts and by the positive context of the materials.
The public TV channel Moldova 1 favored slightly candidate Marian Lupu, mainly by news articles where the government is presented in a positive light.
Realitatea TV, ProTV Chisinau, TV7 and N4 had a relatively balanced behavior and no evident tendencies for favoring or disfavoring the election runners were identified there.
API executive director Petru Macovei said the situation at the monitored online portals is worse than at TV channels. Thus, the editorial policy of the 12 monitored portals was aimed not at informing the people with the right to vote and at helping them make a conscious choice, but at favoring and disfavoring candidates. “It was noticed that the absolute majority of portals selected tendentious materials for publication, either negative or positive about electoral competitors,” he stated.
According to Petru Macovei, the quality of information published in the four monitored newspapers - Komsomoliskaia pravda v Moldove, Panorama, Timpul and Saptamana – leaves much to be desired. The papers contained more opinions about the campaign than news items. Thus, almost 60% of the editorial space of the four newspapers was devoted to opinions and comments. Also, the newspapers were biased towards particular election runners.
Overall, there were monitored 28 media outlets. These were selected by the form of ownership, broadcast or editing language, geographical coverage, famousness and audience.
The monitoring takes place within a project financed by the National Endowment for Democracy and the Council of Europe. The results will be reported weekly, until November 13.
