Each media services provider that will decide to become involved in the covering of the election campaign prior to the November 1 presidential elections should submit a statement concerning the editorial policy to the Audiovisual Council by September 8. Those who will not do this will be unable to cover the election campaign. This is provided in the regulations concerning the covering of the election campaign by the Moldovan media that was approved in the September 1 meeting of the CEC, IPN reports.
According to CEC secretary Maxim Lebedinschi, before the election campaign the media services providers have the right to inform the public about the work of parties and other sociopolitical organizations, initiative groups in support of candidates for President and about other aspects without being influenced by the public authorities or parties.
The electoral advertising and airtime will be regulated in accordance with the provisions of the Election Code and the Audiovisual Code. This way the national media services providers whose list is made public by the Audiovisual Council during the first three days of the electoral period offer the election runners free by 5 minutes of airtime on TV and 10 minutes on the radio for managing electoral programs and informing the voters.
In the camion prior to the presidential elections, the media services providers will offer the election runners by 1 minute a day for placing electoral advertisements. For electoral ads for money, each contender will be offered at most 2 minutes of airtime a day, at each media services provider that take part in the covering of the election campaign.
The local and regional media outlets can organize electoral debates by obeying the anti-epidemic measures or can broadcast live the electoral debates organized by the public TV channel so as to avoid spreading the COVID-19 infection.
The electoral opinion polls can be broadcast not later than 5 days before the election day, by presenting the person who commissioned the poll, the source of financing and other relevant data.
The video, audio and other materials an electoral theme must be kept by the media services providers until the decision on the validation of the outcome of the presidential elections is published in the Official Gazette.
The challenges concerning the covering of the election campaign by media services providers of Moldova will be examined by the Audiovisual Council, while the challenges regarding the covering of the election campaign on the Internet - by courts of law.
