Media continues to favor present governor of Gagauzia during electoral campaign

The print and broadcast government-affiliated media continues to show biasness in favor of the present governor Gheorghe Tabunisc during the electoral campaign in the period from October 26 to November 1 2006. The media was monitored within the frameworks of the project “Free and fair elections for the office of Gagauzia’s governor”. This conclusion was framed in the report “Monitoring media in the electoral campaign for the election of the bashkan” produced by the Independent Press Association. According to the report, favoring through news the accomplishments of the present administration is doubled by the avoidance of any critics. The only exception is the independent newspaper “Nastoiascee Znamea” (Ceadar-Lunga), which supports the independent candidate Mihail Formuzal, the present mayor of the city and negatively presents Tabunscic. The broadcast media, excepting Radio Moldova, continues the strategy of ignoring other competitors. The experts ascertain that the involvement level in the electoral campaign of the national media is more reduced compared with the regional ones. The newspaper “Nezavisimaia Moldova” did not write a word about region’s local elections. The explanation could be that the central authorities abstained in this period, with one single exception, from praising the present administration of Gagauzia. Of the broadcasting media, only Radio Gagauzia launched programs related to the electoral education. The electoral debates are missing from all the monitored TV and radio stations. The involvement of TVM 1 and Radio Moldova confined to broadcasting several news in this period. NIT broadcasted only one news, indirectly tackling the elections from Gagauzia. The majority of electoral news is broadcasted by TV Gagauzia. Not a single TV station broadcasted debates or electoral education programs and electoral advertisement. Radio Gagauzia was the only one to broadcast electoral education programs. The project “Free and fair elections for the office of Gagauzia’s governor (Bashkan)” is financed by Eurasia Foundation in Moldova with the support of the United States Agnecy for International Development (USAID), Swiss International Development Agency (SIDA) and National Endowment for Democracy, USA. Within the frameworks of the project the following media is monitored: Moldova 1 NIT, TV Gagauzia, Radio Moldova, Radio Gagauzia, newspapers „Nezavisimaia Moldova”, „Vesti Gagauzii” (Comrat), „Znamea” (Ciadîr-Lunga), „Stolita Comrat” (Comrat), „Panorama” (Vulcaneşti), „Nastoiashcee Znamea” (Ceadar-Lunga). The project is implemented by the Independent Press Association and the Independent Journalism Center.