New approach in media covering elections

The Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) and the APEL Electronic Press Association, in partnership with the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), will develop a concept of the broadcasters covering the 2009 parliamentary elections. This is one of the joint activities planned within the cooperation between the BCC and APEL, Info-Prim Neo reports. The BCC chairman, Gheorghe Gorincioi, told Tuesday a news conference there were several drafts for the new concept, as the authors would also take into account the experience of other countries. Gheorghe Gorincioi has said, while in Chisinau, the co-rapporteur of the Council of Europe, Josette Durrieu, warned the BCC and the Observers Council of the public company Teleradio-Moldova on the importance of impartially covering the coming elections. According to APEL's president, Alexandru Dorogan, APEL will get involved in elaborating the future concept. As a rule it is drafted by the BCC and the CEC. The APEL president says the concept of 2005 will be reviewed and improved, which will serve as basis. In addition to the clear norms and air times for electoral ads, the new concept should allow broadcasters to adopt their own creative approach of mirroring the electoral race, Alexandru Dorogan opines. According to him, it's important to regulate the elections coverage in newscasts, not only in electoral ads, which do not convey an interactive form of presenting the electoral contestants. APEL and the BCC will monitor the TV station during the campaign. It's important to observe both the voters' rights to be informed and to know all the candidates, and the competitors' and the broadcasters' rights, the APEL president says. The BCC and APEL signed, later in 2007, a cooperation agreement, committing to cooperate to implement the provisions of the broadcasting regulating laws. They says they are happy with the their cooperation so far. Within 8 months, the BCC and APEL have developed the Strategy of covering the national territory with audiovisual programs and the Broadcasters Conduct Code, have organized two zonal seminars for broadcasters and a conference for local producers, have monitored the regional public broadcaster “Teleradio-Gagauzia”, etc. BCC and APEL have a common agenda of activities will the fall of 2009. Now the sides draft changes to the Advertising Law, as the draft will be offered to the Parliament in October. Also in October, they will hold a seminar on switching from analog to digital television, and on September 23-24 – a conference with the name “National and European ethical standards in broadcasting.”