The Association of Independent Press (API), the Independent Journalism Center (CJI) and the Electronic Press Association (APEL) has launched a campaign against manipulation through the mass media. The campaign will include monitoring activities and public debates and the designing of a website where there will be published examples of manipulation and the visitors will be able to leave comments. The public TV channel and the regional channels will broadcast a video clip of the campaign, IPN reports.
“The aim is to diminish the impact of manipulation on the quality of journalistic products and on the public’s perception,” API executive director Petru Macovei told a news conference. The monitoring activities will center on the way the media outlets cover the events. “We will see how one and the same event is covered by different media organizations and will state our opinion, together with national and foreign experts. Maybe we, the journalists, will realize who manipulates and who not without studies and monitoring,” said Petru Macovei.
The monitoring results will be published in a simple language so that everyone understands when they are manipulated. There will be held public debates involving politicians, experts, journalists and students. “The public debates will take place outside Chisinau more so that we explain what manipulation is and how the people should react,” said the director of API.
Nadine Gogu, executive director of the Independent Journalism Center, said the website will be launched in two months. “It will be an instrument for journalists and for media consumers,” she stated.
The campaign forms part of the activities carried out within the Press Freedom Days.
