Monitoring results show that each third piece of news at Radio Moldova lacks impartiality and about one quarter of Moldova 1’s materials are laudatory

The news programmes of Teleradio-Moldova Company (TRM) do not fully meet the characteristics of a public broadcaster though there are positive developments compared with the previous monitoring reports, experts of the project “Monitoring the Broadcasting Code’s Implementation” say. At the third stage of the project carried out between August 6 and 12, there were monitored the contents of the news programmes “Median-info” of Radio Moldova and “Mesager” of Moldova 1. The themes of “Mesager” were compared with the topics of the news programmes broadcast by Pro TV, TV7 and Euro TV. The experts ascertained that almost each third of the monitored 146 radio materials (news stories and topics) lacks impartiality and has a laudatory character. In most of the cases, the respective materials favour the central or local authorities. Two thirds of them are neutral. Four of the topics are critical. The qualitative indexes have improved compared with the previous monitoring stages: each seventh news story is based on two or more sources. At the same time, the frequency at which the official players, including the top state officials, appear in the programmes remained at the same level as during the May monitoring. Also, experts say, in 95 of the cases the materials are neutral and in the rest of the cases they are laudatory, mostly of the central authorities. This reveals the lack of professionalism or, more exactly, pseudo-journalism. The same situation is typical of the national television channel. About one fourth (46) of the monitored 194 TV materials have a laudatory character, as against about 50% during the previous monitoring stage. The local or central authorities are praised in most of the cases. Approximately 60% (110) of the materials are neutral, as opposed to one third earlier. Nineteen topics were critical, as against three previously. The experts say that the qualitative indexes at the television channel have also improved compared with the previous monitoring reports. Each third material is based on two or more sources. Earlier, this index was insignificant. The experts noted that the order of the news items and the length of the subjects do not always depend on their importance. The materials at Moldova 1 can be sooner regarded as produced by a state broadcaster than a public broadcaster. The study authors reasoned that the process of constituting a truly public service would go faster, if the Supervisory Board of the Company monitored the way in which the editorial policies correspond to the public interest, and the administration of TRM abandoned the practice of presenting news and subjects that neglect the legal and deontological norms of writing them. The content and character of a large number of news stories and subjects in the news programmes reveal two serious problems of TRM: the skilfulness of the personnel and the management of the news departments. The monitoring results show that a year after the adoption of the new legislation in the area, TRM does not observe the stipulations of the broadcasting code. The project is carried out by media and human rights nongovernmental organizations under the aegis of the Electronic Press Association (APEL) and with support from Soros-Moldova Foundation. Among the implementers are: the Association of Independent Journalists, the Independent Press Association, the Association of Independent Telejournalists, “Acces-Info” Centre, the Independent Journalism Centre, the Committee for the Freedom of the Press, the Committee for the Defence of Human and Professional Rights, the Federation or Radio and Television People, the Lawyers for Human Rights, the Union of Journalists of Moldova as well as representatives of universities, lawyers and professionals from the broadcasting sector.