Quality of news and subjects on national radio station still low

The National Public Broadcaster “Teleradio Moldova” continues the process of adjustment to the professional standards, especially on television, but a series of indicators point to the existence of old-fashioned practices. Such a conclusion is contained in the first monitoring report of this year prepared by ten media and human rights NGOs under the aegis of the Electronic Press Association (APEL). The report was presented at a news conference held on May 7 as part of the Press Freedom Days in Moldova. For the first time, the NGOs monitored the programs of the Regional Public Broadcaster “Teleradio Gagauzia”. Referring to “Teleradio Moldova”, the experts said that the identified old-fashioned practices are mainly used when reporting events through the official angle, the presented subjects still have a laudatory character and the share of topics on issues that concern the general public is still low. The fifth monitoring report shows that the situation in television is much better compared with the previous periods. But the public radio station did not make progress, the APEL expert Vasile State said. Speaking about the indicators from the report, Vasile State said that 31.3% of the radio programs analyzed in August 2007 and 21% of the programs examined last November contained subjects with laudatory character and the downward trend was thought to persist. But the optimistic forecasts did not come true. The last report indicates that 41.3% of the news items and subjects have a laudatory character. This figure for television is 28.4% and has decreased since March 2007, when the first monitoring was carried out as part of the project. The report also shows that 27.8% of the analyzed radio programs and 23.3% of the studied TV programs are biased, as against 17.9% and, respectively, 31.5% last November. According to the monitors, only ¼ of the radio programs and 33.4% of the TV programs meet the professional standards and have two and more sources. The programs are built up according to the importance of the materials, but not fully according to the norms. The proximity law is not always taken account of. Important events happening in the neighboring states are not covered, the experts say. The monitors also said that “Teleradio Gagauzia” too slowly complies with the present legislation and ethics standards. Most of the news stories and subjects do not meet the professional standards. The public is provided with a reduced volume of information of local interest, mainly through the angle of the decision makers. There are no critical and investigative materials. The team that is implementing the project “Monitoring the Observance of the Broadcasting Code”, which is financed by the Soros Moldova Foundation, is composed of experts of APEL, the Independent Jurists Association, the Independent Press Association, the Association of Independent TV Journalists, Acces-Info Center, the Independent Journalism Center, the Committee for the Freedom of the Press, the Committee for the Defense of Human and Professional Rights, the Jurists for Human Rights, OWH Studio, the Journalists’ Union of Moldova.