Broadcasters between favors and disfavors in election campaign

The number of electoral materials and programs on the radio and TV rose gradually during the election campaign. Almost all the ten broadcasters monitored have actively covered the election campaign, says the final report compiled by the Independent Journalism Center. The Center's director Nadin Gogu was quoted by Info-Prim Neo as saying that the behavior of the public broadcasters Moldova 1 and Radio Moldova differed from that seen in the election campaigns of 2009. They gave up opening the news programs with materials about the central administration and the ruling parties. The journalists managed to ensure a plurality of opinions in the news bulletins and in the special electoral programs, providing more voter education materials. However, they favored slightly the PLDM and PL. The private TV channels with national coverage Prime TV and 2 Plus and the radio station Prime FM had favored the PDM during the last three weeks of the campaign. The PDM's candidate No.2 for MP Vlad Plahotniuc appeared in the news bulletins rather often, especially in reports about the provision of aid to children from socially underprivileged families. Nadin Gogu said that the private channel NIT was biased in favor of the PCRM and its leader. It did not ensure a plurality of opinions in its news programs and presented the parties of the Alliance for European Integration only in a bad light. The channel with regional coverage N4 favored the PLDM, offering it more airtime for describing the electoral events and presenting the activities of the Prime Minister. The radio station Vocea Basarabiei criticized the PCRM and favored the PLDM and PL. Publika TV had a neutral behavior, while Jurnal TV was biased in favor of the Party for Nation and Country and against the PCRM and PDM. Nadin Gogu said the monitoring reports are sent to the Broadcasting Coordination Council that already stated its opinion on a number of objections. The report was produced within the “Monitoring of the mass media in the election campaign” project with funding from the British Embassy in Moldova, the Council of Europe and East Europe Foundation, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, the National Endowment for Democracy and the United States Agency for International Development through Eurasia Foundation. The compilation of the report was also possible owing to the support provided by the U.S. through the United States Agency for International Development as part of the Academy for Educational Development's Moldova Civil Society Strengthening Program.