Polarization among broadcasters deepened in May, report

The national television Moldova 1 and the private channels NIT, N4, Prime, and EuTV have continued to cover political actors in a biased way for a second month after the April 6 elections. This is one of the conclusions of the monitoring report of the newscasts on nine television stations released by the Association of Electronic Press APEL on Wednesday, Info-Prim Neo reports. Covering a period from May 1 to 31, the report found that the most frequent violations occurring at the monitored channels concern the failure to properly ensure sociopolitical pluralism and balance, principles guaranteed by the Broadcasting Code. “In the reporting period, the political actors that enjoyed the most coverage in a favorable context were the representatives of the government: Vladimir Voronin, the acting president of Moldova, and Zinaida Greceanyi, the prime minister of the country. In a negative context, the most frequent political actors in newscasts were the representatives of the opposition: the vice president of the Liberal Party Dorin Chirtoaca, the leader of the Democratic Liberal Party Vlad Filat, and the AMN leader Serafim Urecheanu”,Vasile Stati, APEL expert, told a news conference. “The lack of balance between political actors in broadcasts is more pronounced in the post-election period than before the polls. Four channels – Moldova 1, N4, NIT and EuTV – have openly showed their support to the ruling party, the PCRM, and to the representatives of this party”, said Victor Moraru, also an expert with APEL. According to Moraru, the same broadcasters place in negative contexts and disfavor the parliamentary parties from the opposition, some extra-parliamentary parties and their leaders. “Other channels, like ProTV, TV7 and TVC21, have continued, in most cases, to treat the political actors in conformity with the Broadcasting Code”, Moraru added. The report suggests the process of polarization among the broadcasters has deepened in May, while some of them have showed unwillingness or incapacity to reform in order to provide unbiased information and treat issues of public interest in an impartial manner. “In the run up to the early elections we expect some television channels to preserve their editorial policies, since the Broadcasting Coordination Council has been unable to conduct sustainable monitoring”, said Vasile Stati. In a recent letter to a number of media organizations, including APEL, the national broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova challenged the results of the reports monitoring its activity in the electoral and post-electoral period. “We try to answer all their questions every time but some of their objectives are simply ridiculous”, said Stati. “They'd better not ignore the findings of the monitoring reports, because they are useful for any TV station. Televisions in the west order such monitoring reports, but here they are rejected”, argued Victor Moraru. The project “Monitoring the presence of political/electoral actors on the main television channels in the pre-electoral, electoral and post-electoral period for the 2009 parliamentary elections” is financed by the European Commission's Delegation in Moldova under the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, and is conducted in the framework of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections – Coalition 2009.