The problems related to the coverage of the election campaign by the mass media institutions of Moldova have worsened over the last two weeks. The election runners are favored or disadvantaged depending on the political sympathies of the editors and owners of these institutions, shows the second monitoring report produced by the Association of Independent Press (API), the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) and the Association of Electronic Press (APEL) within the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, IPN reports.
“Regretfully, the news programs, newspapers and online portals contain a lot of opinion articles to the detriment of objective, impartial and equidistant news items,” said API executive director Petru Macovei. He noted that none of the newspapers covered the election campaign fully objectively and impartially, some of them being even evidently biased.
“Moldova Suverana” criticized the Party “Motherland” and the Party of Socialists (PSRM), favoring more often the Liberal Democratic Party (PLDM). “Komsomolskaya Pravda” presented most of the opponents in a neural context, but contained many electoral advertisements that were not appropriately marked. “Timpul” presented the PLDM, the Democratic Party (PDM) and the Liberal Party (PL) in a neutral light, while the PSRM and “Motherland” mainly in a negative light. “Panorama” disadvantaged the parliamentary parties and favored the Christian-Democratic People’s Party (PPCD), “Vesti Gagauzii” favored the PSRM, while “Ziarul National” favored the PLDM, presenting the PSRM, the Communist Party (PCRM) and “Motherland” in a negative light. The situation was the worst at “Nezavisemaya Moldova”, which frequently and evidently violated the deontological principles and favored massively the PCRM.
According to Petru Macovei, among news portals, newsmaker.md covered the election campaign impartially and objectively, being an example in this respect. About 55% of the articles and news on jurnal.md and omg.md were biased. The first website presented mainly the PDM in a negative light, but also the PCRM and PLDM, even if more seldom, while omg.md considerably disadvantaged the PLDM and PDM. Deschide.md and realitatea.md favored massively the PLDM and subtly the PSRM and “Motherland”. Noi.md didn’t show evident political sympathies or antipathies, while politik.md was biased in 40% of its products, presenting most of the political players in a negative or a neutral context. Unimedia.info favored slightly the PDM and PLDM. Moldova24.info supported the PDM and the Party “For Nation” (PPR), presenting the PLDM in a negative light. It was rather impartial and biased and didn’t ensure the pluralism of opinions.
As to TV news, APEL expert Aneta Gonta said that Prime TV, Publika TV, Canal 2 and Canal 3 favored massively the PDM by the positive context in which the election runner was presented and by the frequency of their appearance. Jurnal TV presented the PDM most often, but mainly in a negative context. N4 favored the PLDM and disadvantaged the PDM and PCRM. TV7 favored mostly the PDM and PLDM. But these two parties were presented in a negative light by Accent TV, where only the PSRM appeared in a positive context. Moldova 1, Canal Regional and GRT were the most impartial. In general, on the 12 TV channels monitored, the PDM appeared 453 times, 170 times of which in a positive context, the PLDM – 155 times (18 positive), the PCRM – 141 (8), the PL – 114 (2), while the PSRM – 86 (4).
IJC director Nadine Gogu said that the programs on the radio stations were more balanced and impartial. However, by the appearances in a positive context, Radio Moldova favored slightly the PL and PDM, Vocea Basarabiei – the PLDM, Radio Plai – the PDM, Russkoe Radio – the PDM, while Radio Noroc favored no election runner.
The monitoring was performed within a project financed by the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy, the U.S. Embassy in Moldova and East-Europe Foundation with the funds allocated by the Government of Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (DANIDA).
