The Press Council chose the finalists of the National Journalistic Ethics and Professional Deontology Award 2016 contest. The final was reached by three of the nine nominated media outlets, namely Anticoruptie.md, Newsmaker.md and the weekly “Ziarul de garda”. The winner will be announced in the Gala “Journalists of 2016”, IPN reports.
The finalists of the contest were selected based on a voting procedure that consisted of a number of stages. Thus, between July 20 and November 15, 2016, the media consumers could vote on the website www.mediaforum.md for the nine media outlets that were nominated for the National Journalistic Ethics and Professional Deontology Award 2016. Afterward, the professional behavior of the media outlets was assessed by a group of experts and members of the Press Council. Three finalists were chosen based on the total votes obtained from the public and from the experts and members of the Press Council.
In accordance with the regulations for organizing and holding the contest, in a special closed meeting the Press Council will decide which of the three finalist media outlets will get the award. As the organizer of the contest, the Press Council can decide to give the award to none of these if it determines that the finalists do not deserve it. The winner of the contest will become known in the Gala “Journalists of 2016” (22nd edition), which will be staged by the Independent Journalism Center and the Committee for the Freedom of the Press on December 16, 2016.
The National Journalistic Ethics and Professional Deontology Award was instituted by the Press Council of the Republic of Moldova in 2015 and is annually provided with the aim of promoting the journalistic ethical and deontological principles and in recognition of the merits of media outlets in the field. In 2015, the award was handed over to the Radio Free Europe Office in Chisinau.
