The Press Council recalls that journalists and media institutions must adopt a similar behaviour in the real and virtual space. Thus, journalists must refrain from using stigmatizing and discriminatory language in their personal posts on social networks, which could be associated with the editorial board’s position by the public. The recommendation was made by the members of the Press Council at the meeting on Tuesday, October 29, when a complaint regarding the insulting language of journalist Mihai Conţiu in a Facebook post about MP Marina Tauber was examined, IPN reports.
The Press Council draws attention to the fact that, according to the Code of Deontological Ethics, "journalist activity is incompatible with the dissemination of messages prohibited by law, such as hate speech, homophobia, anti-Semitism, discrimination, etc., as well as with political and religious propaganda, election campaigning activities."
After examining the notification concerning the possible incitement to discrimination on the basis of ethnicity in the news about female students of Arab origin, who have recently beaten up a young girl in Chisinau, the Press Council has asked the journalists to treat fairly all persons with whom they come into contact while fulfilling their professional duties. According to the Code of Deontological Ethics, "the journalist mentions ethnicity, political opinions, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and other sensitive information regarding a person only when this is editorially relevant". At the same time, the Press Council warns the media institutions that they have both an ethical and legal obligation to moderate the comments of readers who incite hatred.
The Press Council found that several provisions of the Code of Deontological Ethics were violated by the portals Bloknot-moldova.md, Newsmd.md and partially by Point.md, after examining a notification of the program coordinator at the GenderDocM Center, Angelica Frolov. The plaintiff claimed these portals had spread false information that GenderDocM would have distributed brochures with sexual content to students of the State University. The article was originally written by Bloknot-moldova.md, having as its source a channel from the Telegram network, without verifying the information and without giving the right to respond to those who were directly affected. Subsequently, the text and images were taken over by other portals, and many readers posted comments inciting violence and hatred. After the Press Council was notified, Point.md portal removed the news from the site.
"Life without domestic violence " National Coalition has complained to the Press Council that the Telegraph.md portal violated the Code of Deontological Ethics when it wrote about the video footage that appeared on the Internet with a man who was sexually harassing a young woman in the trolleybus. Council members noted that this topic has been intensely publicized by several portals, but journalists need to be careful about the language they use in order not to distort reality and not perpetuate stereotypes that can cause stigmatization of individuals or groups of people. In this case it was sexual harassment, and attempts to ironize the situation of those involved, not to mention suggesting that the victim encouraged the aggressor's behaviour, should be excluded from journalistic practice.