Most TV stations with national and regional coverage reflect in a relatively neutral fashion the election campaign for general local and parliamentary elections set for October 20, while three broadcasters: NTV Moldova, Accent TV and the Central Television, continue to make obvious political partisanship, favouring certain electoral competitors. These conclusions can be found in the second monitoring report of media behavior in the election campaign, launched by the Independent Journalism Center.
In an IPN press conference, Nadine Gogu, director of the Independent Journalism Center, said that out of ten monitored stations, seven offered relatively equal access to candidates, who appeared in separate news or were mentioned in news directly or indirectly related to the election. Most electoral issues were viewed through the prism of a single source of information, were not analyzed in depth, while contextual information and other sources were not included. Moreover, the absolute majority of the relevant materials were unbalanced from the perspective of gender equality, with men being cited the most.
NTV Moldova and Accent TV have continued to massively promote the PSRM candidates, including Ion Ceban, through the access granted and the positive context in which they appear. At the same time, these stations disadvantaged Andrei Nastase. The Central Television clearly favoured the representatives of the Șor Political Party, slightly disadvantaging the ACUM bloc candidate, Andrei Năstase.
The public station Moldova 1 had a balanced behavior, giving access to the majority of electoral competitors in the news, without obviously favouring any candidate. The PSRM mayoral hopeful, Ion Ceban, has benefited from several appearances in a positive context, compared to other candidates.
Prime TV and Publika TV did not massively favour any candidate, however, they slightly disadvantaged Andrei Năstase, the ACUM bloc Chișinău City Hall candidate, by offering selective negative information. At RTR Moldova, Ion Ceban was slightly favoured, due to the relatively large number of materials that reflected his activities and the positive context in which they presented him.
Jurnal TV and TV8 provided access for most candidates who were running a campaign, without favouring or disadvantaging anyone. Pro TV also had a balanced behavior, neutrally reflecting the vast majority of electoral competitors. Only Octavian Țîcu, the PUN candidate, has benefited from a relatively positive coverage in relation to other candidates, being quoted or mentioned several times.
Nadine Gogu said that the first monitoring report and complaint regarding the three partisan stations were sent to the Audiovisual Council. According to her, the three broadcasters should be included in the monitoring list.
Polina Panainte, secretary of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, said that the 10 broadcasters were monitored between September 28 and October 4. The report was prepared by the Independent Journalism Center, with the support of the East-European Foundation, US Agency for International Development and the United Kingdom Department for International Development, with resources provided by Sweden.v
