Nongovernmental organizations are concerned about the fact that fake news and false information were disseminated by the online media in the campaign prior to the early mayoral elections. Secretary of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections Polina Panainte, in a news conference at IPN on June 5, said the media NGOs consider this situation is worrisome in the context of the upcoming parliamentary elections and the authorities should promptly take action.
Polina Panainte stated it is easy to broadcast fake news, but it is hard to counteract the negative effects of such a deed. Solutions are needed to prevent the dissemination of such news. Another situation that arouses concern is the fact that the media outlets are politically affiliated even if they declared another status when they started work. “We noticed that some of the broadcasters openly promoted a candidate and defamed another one. Such a thing should not exist in a democratic society,” said the secretary.
The NGOs recommend the media outlets to cover the campaign that will precede the parliamentary elections without discriminating the candidates and to adequately inform the voters about the electoral programs and platforms of election runners. “We want the media outlets to cover the electoral campaign without any interference on the part of the authorities, the electoral bodies or electoral contenders, while the activity of the mass media should be monitored by the competent bodies and these should intervene promptly and efficiently when deviations are identified,” stated Polina Panainte.
Independent Journalism Center executive director Nadine Gogu said the broadcasters are recommended to use the monitoring reports produced in the campaign prior to the local elections as self-regulatory instruments and to eliminate the shortcomings so that they work in accordance with the legislation. The local elections were a test that showed that even if there is a regulatory body, some of the broadcasters adopted an inappropriate behavior that they perpetuated and ignored the fact that they were penalized. The behavior of some of those penalized didn’t change.
According to the expert, in the campaign prior to the parliamentary elections, there should be applied other instruments that would help the broadcasters work legally and cover the campaign as they should. “The role of the mass media is to offer the public, during the elections in particular, correct and equidistant information and to ensure all the election runners’ access. We should allow the people to judge and to vote in an informed way. They should decide by themselves,” stated Nadine Gogu.
The TV channels in the election campaign were monitored by the Independent Journalism Center as part of the project “Media enabling democracy, inclusion and accountability in Moldova” that is financed by United States Agency for International Development, with the effort of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections.
