The violation of professional norms and the use of propaganda and manipulation techniques, denounced in the previous reports of the Center for Independent Journalism (CJI), continued and even increased in May-June.
CJI’s third monitoring report, with the title “Elements of propaganda, informational manipulation and violation of journalistic deontology in the local media landscape”, concerns the web versions of the Ziarul National and Panorama newspapers, 6 TV channels - Publika, Prime, Jurnal TV, Accent, RTR Moldova, Ren TV, and four news websites - Gagauzinfo.md, Novostipmr.com, Sputnik.md and Deschide.md. Viorica Zaharia, one of the monitoring experts, told a press conference at IPN that most of the analyzed subjects are about domestic politics, such as the foundation congress of the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS), lead by Maia Sandu, the election of a new chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Rogozin’s visit to Chisinau and Tiraspol, the arrest of businessman Veaceslav Platon and the statements of former CNA division chief Mihail Gofman about the banking fraud.
Victoria Zaharia said that some of the monitored institutions didn’t respect the journalist’s deontological code in covering these events. Facts were exaggerated, presented only from one party’s perspective, mixed with opinions and subjective labels. Pluralism of opinion was disregarded and mass media consumers were fed unilateral, tendentious and partisan information.
Elements of propaganda and manipulation were found in the news stories published by Publika TV, RTR, Ren TV, Jurnal TV, Sputnik.md and, to a lesser extent, Deschide.md and Ziarul National. Some of these institutions favored certain political actors and presented others in a negative light with text and video materials that distorted facts.
CJI experts recommend their mass media colleagues to consider the public interest, the deontological code and journalistic quality standards when choosing subjects, writing a news story and preparing a news bulletin.
Additionally, the press should refrain from attacking and denigrating sources of information like people, institutions, parties. Another recommendation is for journalists to double check and present fairly the information published by these sources. Journalists should give up the unilateral presentation of facts, the use of anonymous sources without checking their informations, and the habit of commenting on facts outside of opinion columns and talk shows.
CJI will continue to monitor the 12 mass media institutions as part of the “Stop fake!” campaign and encourages media consumers to get their information from several sources in order to avoid misinformation.
