The Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) suspended the retransmission of the channel “Rosia 24” on Moldova’s territory for a period of six months. Such a decision was taken after a monitoring report showed that the informative programs of this channel manipulate, incite hatred and violate the Broadcasting Code, IPN reports.
As a result of the same report, the BCC decided to penalize the local TV channels “Prime”, “TV 7”, “RTR Moldova” and “Ren Moldova” for violating the national legislation on broadcasting and the European democratic standards. “Prime” and “TV 7”, which committed the first irregularity, were warned publicly, while “RTR Moldova” and “Ren Moldova” were fined 5,400 lei.
On April 18-24, the BCC monitored the given TV channels to see how they respect the principles of sociopolitical balance, equidistance and objectivity in the informative programs broadcast in Moldova. The monitoring showed that they used aggressive propaganda instruments, while their journalists disseminated and intensified unfounded rumors and manipulated by texts and images. They also used labels to discredit and present the Ukrainian Government in a negative light and misinformed the people about the events in Ukraine.
The monitored channels also broadcast news and features where there is no pluralism of opinions or that presented unilaterally or principally the viewpoint of Moscow and of the supporters of Ukraine’s federalization. The language used in comments was aggressive and intolerant and contained direct insults at the Government of Ukraine and the population that supports it. The report highlights cases of inciting of violence and interethnic hatred, discrimination on grounds of affiliation to the pro-Ukrainian and pro-European forces.
BCC chairman Marian Pocaznoi noted that the national broadcasters that retransmit Russian TV channels are responsible for the aired messages even if the programs are broadcast live. A solution is for the broadcaster to replace the informative programs that manipulate the public opinion with ads or other programs for example.
