Media observers track deviations from law

Three TV stations committed deviations from the legal requirements concerning the broadcasters' behavior in the electoral campaign. Observers under the aegis of the Electronic Press Association (APEL) told a news conference hosted by Info-Prim Neo, on July 21, that the question was about N4, which had aired hidden advertising in the Communists Party's favor, about NIT, which broadcast electoral advertising in a newscast and about EuTV, which ran ads of an electoral participant during more than the due 120 seconds a day. The authority regulating the area – the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) – has not penalized any broadcaster during the on-going race for the parliamentary elections of July 29. Vasile State, the coordinator of the monitoring project, has stated that “The BCC lacks reactions. It was rather passive during the previous campaign, limiting itself to making some global warnings. It told everyone that 'you all violate'. It's simpler this way. And it did not punish the really guilty.” On Tuesday, APEL announced the results of a new monitoring report of the main televisions from Chisinau from July 1 through 14, 2009. In their newscasts, EuTV, Moldova 1, N4 and NIT massively covered, in a positive context, the representatives of the government, and in a negative context – the opposition's representatives. Prime, Pro TV, TV7 and TVC21 did not favor or disfavor political actors. A press release distributed at the conference reads that the results of monitoring the televisions in the first 14 days of July show that the politicians are treated differently in terms of quantity and quality. Certain progress has been noticed in covering the political actors in a more balanced manner on most of the observed televisions. At the same time, in terms of quality, using the televisions to produce media effects with political and electoral impact grew more evident. The projects of monitoring the televisions by the APEL experts will last till the end of October and, through it, the NGO participates in the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections – Coalition 2009.