The controversial items at the ten TV channels monitored by the Independent Journalism Center during June 25 – July 1 were most of the times balanced. However, the number of items that make reference to sources that do not answer the phone or refuse to comment increased, with the journalists’ effort to ensure the balance of opinions not being evident. The largest part of the content referring to the election campaign was based on candidates for MP as sources, with only one source of information being used, without treating the subjects in depth, shows the fourth report on the monitoring of the mass media during the campaign prior to the snap parliamentary elections that was compiled by the Independent Journalism Center within the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections and was presented in a news conference at IPN.
Independent Journalism Center executive director Nadine Gogu said a part of the monitored TV channels - Moldova 1, RTR Moldova, Jurnal TV, Pro TV, and TV 8 - offered access to most of the candidates running in elections. Another part - Primul în Moldova, NTV Moldova, TV 6, Publika TV, and Prime TV – privileged particular candidates. Most of the analyzed items were unbalanced from the gender perspective, the men being quoted more often than the women.
The experts of the Independent Journalism Center concluded that three of the ten monitored channels - Jurnal TV, Pro TV, and TV 8 – covered the campaign in a correct and impartial way, without favoring of disfavoring any of the election contenders. Two channels - NTV Moldova and Primul în Moldova – noticeably favored the candidates of BeCS, disfavoring the candidates of PAS and President Maia Sandu. Three TV channels - Moldova 1, Publika TV, and Prime TV – favored BeCS through the frequency of appearances and the selection of subjects for being covered. Two channels - TV 6 and RTR Moldova – favored the Shor Party through the frequency of appearances and the tone of the item.
Elena Prohnitski, secretary of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (CALC), said the report is part of a broad effort made by the Coalition to promote free, fair, transparent and inclusive elections. “We do this not only through the agency of training and information, civic and electoral education programs, but also through monitoring exercises. Without them, it is impossible to identify the shortcomings that hinder the citizens from voting freely, consciously and in an informed way and the creation of equal conditions for all the election contenders. The goal of these monitoring reports is to inform the authorities about the irregularities, to urge them to make effort to remove them,” stated Elena Prohnitski.
Within the monitoring effort, there was fully analyzed the content of the main news bulletins and items that referred to elections directly or indirectly according to such criteria as impartiality, objectivity, political bias, pluralism of opinions, correctness and balance of sources. The used language and videos were also analyzed.
