The Press Council recommended Accent TV channel to respect the deontological principle of accuracy of the presented information and not to generalize the assertions based on singular cases. The decision was taken after examining a complaint filed by the Chisinau Municipal Council’s General Division of Education, Youth and Sport, IPN reports.
The employees of the Division were featured in a program where the presenter said these, including the acting head, weren’t at the workplace during working hours and had a negligent attitude towards children. According to the Division, when the feature was produced, the working day was shorter than usual and the acting head and the employees had been at work until 4:30pm and the video cameras from the institution’s halls can confirm this.
As Accent TV didn’t respond to the notification of the Press Council and didn’t delegate representatives to take part in the meeting where the complaint was examined, the Council recommended the Division to ask for the right to replay from Accent TV if it considers that the channel spoiled its image.
After examining another complaint, the Press Council recommended the editorial office of the weekly “Ziarul de Garda” to exclude information about the initiator of divorce proceedings in the case of one of the prosecutors featured in an investigation article and the decision concerning the custody of the minor children taken by the ex-spouses. Ala Popa, ex-wife of prosecutor Igor Popa, filed a complaint to the Press Council, accusing the editorial staff of interference in her private life and revealing of personal information.
Attending the meeting, the editor-in-chief of “Ziarul de Garda” Aneta Grosu explained that the information is of public interest and can be found in a court judgment that was published on the website of courts of law. At the same time, many of the functionaries accept fictitious divorces in order to hide undeclared property and the journalists show an increased interest in investigating such cases. The Press Council members didn’t agree that it was interference in the private life and recommended the editorial office to exclude particular details from the article as these were irrelevant for the examined case.
In the same meeting, the Council examined the comments that incited hatred against the Roma community to an article published on the portal Point.md. It reminded that the editorial responsibility refers to the whole content in the case of online portals and the editorial office should moderate the comments that incite hatred. The Council established that the deontological provisions on tolerance and nondiscrimination were violated and decided to notify the Council for the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination and Ensuring of Equality. The editorial office of Point.md didn’t react to the Council’s notification.
The Press Council also addressed other issues and accepted to examine a complaint submitted by a group of parents of students of the Chisinau Theoretical Lyceum “Gheorghe Asachi” about the way in which Publika TV covered a conflict situation between a teacher and a student of the school, in its next meeting.
