Mass media cover election campaign without serious deviations, monitoring report

Most of the media outlets monitored by the Independent Journalism Center did not seriously deviate from the professional and deontological standards during the first two weeks of the election campaign. They covered the campaign mainly objectively and equidistantly. However, the TV channel NIT and the newspapers Moldova Suverana and Nezavisimaya Moldova were biased and defamed election runners. The monitoring report was presented in a news conference on May 5, Info-Prim Neo reports. From April 18, the Independent Journalism Center monitored five TV channels (PrimeTV, NIT, EuroTV, Jurnal TV, and N4) and five papers (Adevarul, Timpul de dimineata, Moldova Suverana, Nezavisimaya Moldova, and Jurnal de Chisinau). According to the Center’s director Nadine Gogu, most of the channels had in general a correct behavior, except NIT, which was biased in favor of the PCRM. “The largest part of the news stories broadcast by NIT are samples of anti-journalism because the deontological norms and the Broadcasting Code are not respected,” said Nadine Gogu. She also said that NIT often resorts to caricatures and music in its news, uses archive images, includes irrelevant pictures in the texts. “The news items have only one source of information and contain a lot of comments and personal opinions of the reporter,” stated Nadine Gogu. As to the other channels, Nadine Gogu said there were identified no major deviations from the international and deontological standards. Nevertheless, the channel N4 favors slightly the PLDM. “We presume the situation will change in the second half of the campaign as the number of electoral events will increase,” said Nadine Gogu. Speaking about the monitored newspapers, expert of the project Petru Macovei said Adevarul, Timpul de dimineata and Jurnal de Chisinau covered the election campaigned rather impartially and without serious deviations from the deontological norms. But the editorial policy of Moldova Suverana and Nezavisimaya Moldova is biased towards the PCRM’s candidate for mayor of Chisinau Igor Dodon. On the other hand, other election runners are presented in a negative light. “Moldova Suverana covers the election campaign selectively and puts the PCRM’s candidate only in a favorable light. At the same time, it covers the events that put current mayor Dorin Chirtoaca in an unfavorable light. The right to reply is often not given,” said Petru Macovei. The monitoring report produced by the Independent Journalism Center will be submitted to the Broadcasting Coordination Council and the Central Election Commission. The conduct of the mass media in the election campaign preceding the June 5 local elections is monitored by the Independent Journalism Center within the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, with financial support from East Europe Foundation from the resources provided by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Foreign Ministry of Denmark. There will be presented four more monitoring reports until June 19.