Running after sensations, journalists violate presumption of innocence, report

Some of the journalists violate the presumption of innocence of the persons arrested by the police or give titles that do not correspond to the text of the article, chasing after sensations and shocking news. This is one of the conclusions of the monitoring report “Disadvantaged persons in the press’ attention” that was compiled by the Association of Independent Press, Info-Prim Neo reports. In November-December 2011, there were monitored 22 newspapers and portals. The focus was on children in need, minority groups, disabled persons and women in difficulty. The authors aimed to determine how correctly the monitored publications covered subjects concerning disfavored persons. The report shows that the 22 newspapers and portals ensured relative visibility of the monitored subjects by the number of articles, the areas intended for them and the place where they were published. But half of the given outlets devoted not much attention to the monitored subjects. Preference was given to news items and reports. The persons with disabilities and children in need were covered more often than the minority groups and the women in difficulty. “This points to disfunctionality in the editorial policy of the monitored outlets,” said report co-author Ion Bunduchi, adding the journalists continue to use such words as ‘invalid’, ‘disability degree’, ‘blind’, and ‘mental handicap’. The authors consider the media outlets must adjust the editorial policy so as to regularly and uniformly cover themes concerning disadvantaged persons. The thematic diversity, geographic diversity and the diversity of the journalistic genres and methods offered by the multimedia platform improves the content of the outlets and increases their attractiveness. Additional effort is needed to eliminate the semantic discrepancy between the titles and content of the articles. The advertising materials are not contraindicated, but they should be marked. For a part of the monitored outlets, the improvement of the quality of the language used must become a major objective. The report “Disadvantaged persons in the press’ attention” was produced within the Prevention of Discrimination through the Print Media Project that is implemented by the Association of Impendent Press with financial support from the Equality and Civic Engagement Program of Soros Foundation Moldova.