The election campaign prior to the presidential elections has been the dirtiest one so far and no limit was respected in terms of manipulation and propaganda dissemination during the last two weeks, consider media NGOs and experts, who look for solutions to make the journalists more responsible and to discourage them from resorting to manipulation, IPN reports.

In a meeting of the press club “Stop false!” entitled “Information manipulation in election campaign”, Ion Bunduchi, executive director of the Electronic Press Association, said televised journalism worsened so much that not even the professional interest can motivate him to watch a program from the beginning till the end. The election campaign last week was the dirtiest ever. Reporters managed to create real propaganda ‘jewels’, broadcasting news without informative basis and making reference to anonymous experts and analysts.

“What shall we do with these journalists? Not shaking their hands is not enough. Maybe we should compile a black book of journalism? Maybe, if a journalist is not recognized by a media NGO, this should be employed by no one? In many countries, if a journalist violates the deontological norms, this is not employed,” stated Ion Bunduchi, concluding that the TV channels in the current election campaign did the work of the electoral staffs.

Media expert Viorica Zaharia said the independent media outlets made effort to rebut the disseminated false information and this is praiseworthy. In this connection, it was mentioned the effort made by IPN News Agency, which, through the project sic!, refuted a part of the false and manipulating information spread by candidates and their supporters.

Viorica Zaharia noted that some of the portals started to reinvent journalistic genres, broadcasting materials in the form of news articles, but that contain elements of lampoons, comments and others. “What is most dramatic is the fact that there are no regulations to govern the election campaign covering online. There are no penalties,” sated the expert.

Petru Macovei, executive director of the Independent Press Association, said he is not in favor of imposing penalties on journalists, but, when no limit is respected, an intervention is definitely needed. A self-purifying mechanism should be identified for the journalists who manipulate to be excluded from the guild.