The second stage to monitor five online platforms (omg.md, pan.md, publika.md, timpul.md, and unimedia.info) revealed aggressive coverage of the election campaign and the favoring of election runners. There was also identified hidden electoral publicity.

The monitoring was performed by the Independent Journalism Center on May 15-30.

Mass media expert Petru Macovei, in a news conference at IPN, said the portal www.omg.md, as in the period of the first monitoring, had an aggressive behavior and criticized the government, most of the times without providing facts. The Democratic Party (PDM) was the target for criticism, while the “Our Party” and its leaders were presented in a positive light and were intensely promoted. The language used by the platform was full of insinuations and labels in relation to contestants.

The editorial policy of www.pan.md was aimed at promoting two parties: the Party of Socialists (PSRM) and “Our Party”, a large number of articles published here being biased. Most of the examined articles referred to different conflict situations or accusations against election runners, without presenting the opinion of those involved.

Petru Macovei said the situation on www.publika.md is probably the worst as this portal appears as an election campaign journal of the PDM. The intensity by which this party’s candidates are promoted by this portal points to hidden advertising. The authors of the articles highlighted problems of communities, but presented only the solutions suggested by the PDM’s candidate for the post of mayor. The other candidates were not presented at all.

As during the previous monitoring period, www.timpul.md harshly criticized the PSRM and some of the candidates of the PDM. The other contestants were not yet favored.

www.unimedia.info intensely promoted the Liberal Democratic Party. The media sources monitored improved their gender equality indicators, except for unimedia.info, where the situation worsened, with only one woman source being presented in the monitored period.

The general conclusion of the monitoring team is that the goal is not to comprehensively inform the people about the election campaign, but to promote the narrow interests of parties, the principles of professional journalism being often neglected.