Municipality vs. Termocom – December’s hottest corruption-related media topic

Of all corruption-related topics, the most reported-on event in December 2007 was the conflict between the Chisinau authorities and the heat distributor Termocom, shows the report “Media Coverage of Corruption”, published by the Independent Journalism Centre. According to the report, the radio station Vocea Basarabiei and the channels Pro TV and Euro TV brought out issues questioning Termocom’s transparency in expenditure management and the reasonableness of the high salaries received by its top managers. At the same, the NIT channel treated the subject in a way to show that the city councillors acted unprofessionally and had the hidden intent of saving money for future elections. The public broadcaster Moldova 1 presented the conflict both from Termocom’s point of view and neutral positions. Vocea Basarabiei also encouraged Termocom’s consumers to express their thoughts on the issue. In December, the monitored radio and TV stations broadcasted a total of 207 materials related to corruption. The most of them were broadcasted by Moldova 1 (46), NIT (35), and Pro TV (34). By length of broadcasted materials, the first were Pro TV (3 h 48 min.), Euro TV (2 h 41 min.), and NIT (1 h 34 min.). The eight newspapers monitored in December published 87 materials concerning corruption and misuse of public money. The most articles were published by Moldova Suverana (25) and Ziarul de Garda (16), followed by Nezavisimaia Moldova (13), Jurnal de Chisinau and Timpul de Dimineata – by 12 each. However, judging by the ratio of allotted paper space to the frequency of appearance, the largest coverage of relevant topics was given by Ziarul de Garda, SP, and Jurnal de Chisinau. In a pattern seen in the previous monitoring reports, the state-run periodical Vesti Gagauzii, published in Comrat, featured no materials that would match the subject of the monitoring. The report summarises the results of monitoring 15 media institutions, both public and private. The monitoring report assesses the way in which the Moldova media covers subjects related to corruption and misuse of public funds, as well as anti-corruption measures taken by the Government, politicians and non-governmental organisations. The report appears thanks to U.S. Government funding, provided through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).