The Press Council of Moldova urges journalists and media institutions to respect the presumption of innocence when reporting stories about suspects and defendants in cases of crimes or murder until there is a definitive and final court ruling on the matter. The Press Council's call is a reaction to a complaint it received, which accuses 24 news portals and websites of media institutions of violating the presumption of innocence by covering a trial case, IPN reports.

During the meeting of the Press Council on December 18, the Council members ascertained that some of the accused websites did deviate from journalistic professional ethics when covering the story about the acquittal by the Hancesti Court of three teenagers previously accused of raping a minor. Ludmila Andronic, chairwoman of the Press Council, said that the information about the teenagers should have been treated differently and direct accusations regarding the crime should have been avoided until a final ruling of the court.

The examination of the complaint revealed that some agencies and online portals said explicitly in the title or the body of the story that the teenagers had raped the minor, even though they were found innocent by the judge. Even when there is reasonable doubt regarding the correctness of a court ruling, the journalists mustn't ground their stories only on the statements of prosecutors or a single party of the trial. Article 4.9 of the Moldovan Journalist's Deontological Code requires journalists to respect the presumption of innocence and consider a person innocent until a final and irreversible sentence.

The complaint against the 24 websites says that the journalists published concrete information about the place and time of the crime, the statements of the victim, the psychiatric expertise report, even if the trials weren't public. The petitioners also denounced the violation by journalists of the right to privacy and dignity.

The Hancesti trial was brought to public attention in November of this year.