Moldovan media pays little attention to corruption issues

The mass media in Moldova pays little attention to matters related to corruption and anti-corruption measures – this is one of the findings of the first quarterly media monitoring report, published by the Independent Journalism Centre as part of the project “Media Coverage of Corruption”. In the period October-December 2007, the monitored 15 media institutions published/broadcasted 670 materials relevant to the subject of the monitoring. Almost half of them (48%) referred to corruption indirectly, in the context of other events, or just mentioned it casually. The monitored media mainly opted for allegations or accusations of corruption brought to public officials, especially high-ranked (30%). As a rule, the allegations and accusations of corruption haven’t been confirmed by relevant authorities nor backed by investigative reporting. Particular cases of corruption formed the topic of 14% of materials, but not any of them incriminated high-rank public officials. The report also notes that most of the news stories were based on information given by official sources at news conferences. Only 29% of the materials tracked the developments of some subjects reported on earlier. Both print and electronic media avoided investigations into cases of corruption, with only three investigative articles and six feature stories with elements of investigation being published in the reporting period. Materials on controversial matters didn’t always present the views of the both sides involved, and even when it happened, one of the sides was given less airtime or space in the paper to express their point of view. The anti-corruption programmes conducted by the government or NGOs were covered briefly, usually taking the form of reports from meetings of the central authorities, conferences, press statements and other events. The goal of the monitoring project is to assess the way in which the media in Moldova covers corruption issues and anti-corruption measures, as well as to encourage reporters to observe the standards and rules of unbiased and balanced journalism.