Over the second week of the election campaign, the Democratic Party, the Party of Socialists, the Bloc ACUM and the Shor Party appeared on TV most often, with the party managed by Vlad Plahotniuc being mainly presented in positive light. On the other side, the bloc ACUM appeared on TV primarily in a negative context.
In a news conference at IPN, director of the Independent Journalism Center Nadin Gogu said the monitoring of February 1-8 that covered 12 TV channels showed the Democratic leader Vlad Plahotniuc was most often presented on TV, principally in positive and neutral contexts. This is followed by the co-presidents of the bloc ACUM, Andrei Năstase and Maia Sandu, who were presented mainly in a neutral or a negative light.
According to the report, Moldova 1, PRO TV and TV 8 neutrally presented all the candidates in their newscasts and debates. Prime TV, Canal 2, Canal 3 and Publika TV presented primarily the candidates of the Democracy Party, in a positive light, while the representatives of ACUM on these channels appeared in a negative light. NTV-Moldova and Accent TV allotted airtime mainly to the candidates of the Party of Socialists and to President Igor Dodon. These were presented in a positive or a neutral context. Jurnal TV, in its news bulletins about the election campaign, covered different events staged by the candidates in a neutral way, but showed a negative attitude to the Democratic Party in its debate programs. The Central Television presented the candidates of the Shor Party in a positive light and the candidates of the Party of Socialists and the bloc ACUM in a negative light.
Director of the Association of Independent Press Petru Macovei spoke about the way in which the online media covered the campaign. He said the number of electoral materials almost doubled in the period. The Democratic Party, the Party of Socialists and the bloc ACUM are also the most visible election runners in the online media. The Democratic Party and the Party of Socialists were mainly presented in a positive light. Unlike in the audiovisual media, the suspended mayor of Orhei town Ilan Shor appeared most often in the online media. This is followed by Vlad Plahotniuc, Andrei Năstase, Maia Sandu and Pavel Filip. Ilan Shor and Vlad Plahotniuc were presented mainly in a positive or a neutral light, while Andrei Năstase and Maia Sandu appeared mostly in a negative context.
The online media outlets that covered the election campaign in a balanced way are the portals agora.md, moldova.org, newsmaker.md, unimedia.info and zdg.md. The portals aif.md, kp.md, gagauzinfo.md and noi.md were biased and favored the Party of Socialists, while timpul.md favored the Democratic Party and the Shor Party and presented the bloc ACUM in a negative light. The newspaper Jurnal de Chisinau covered the activities of ACUM in a positive way, while those of the Democratic Party, the Party of Socialists and the Shor Party mainly in a negative light.
Polina Panaite, secretary general of the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, said the report reveals particular pluralism in the media. Most of the monitored media outlets presented only the opinions of the candidates they support and disadvantaged those that they do not support.
