Press divided according to electoral sympathies and antipathies

The newspapers, news agencies and online journals in the current election campaign continue to have favorites and enemies. The press is divided according to the electoral sympathies and antipathies of the editors and journalists, considers Petru Macovei, expert in the monitoring campaign conducted by the Independent Journalism Center within the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections Project, Info-Prim Neo reports. Among the publications that commit “professional offenses”, Petru Macovei mentioned “Moldova Suverana”, “Nezavisimaya Moldova” and the portal www.omg.md, which campaign in favor of the Communists Party. In all their news and opinion materials, this party is presented only in a favorable light. The given publications use street language, while the authors of the opinion articles use anonymous sources. Most of the articles criticizing the governing alliance do not offer the right to reply. Petru Macovei said the newspapers “Timpul de dimineata”, “Jurnal de Chisinau”, “Cuvantul”, “Gazeta de Sud” and the news agency “Moldpres”, as in the previous election campaigns, present the PCRM in a bad light, while the Alliance for European Integration in a favorable light. The newspapers “Evenimentul zilei”, “Panorama” and partially “Komsomolskaya pravda v Moldove” have a more or less critical attitude towards the ruling alliance, but do not yet favor election contenders. The paper “Flux” presents all the election contenders in a bad light and favors the Christian-Democratic People's Party. The newspaper “Infotag” and the portal www.unimedia.md had the best behavior in the monitored period, presenting different opinions and positions of parties in the context of the election campaign. The Monitoring of the Mass Media in the Election Campaign Project is implemented in partnership with the Association of Independent Press and the Marketing and Polling Institute IMAS-INC Chisinau. Ten radio stations and 16 newspapers, news agencies and online journals are monitored to see how the cover the election campaign for the early legislative elections. The monitoring covers the period between September 28 and November 28, 2010. The results will be made public in bimonthly reports in the first monitored month and then in weekly reports. The project is supported financially by the British Embassy in Moldova, the Council of Europe and East-Europe Foundation with resources provided by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the United States Agency for International Development, through Eurasia Foundation.