The second week of the election campaign was marked by a reduced presence on TV of the 11 candidates for the position of President. Most of the time, representatives participate in electoral shows and debates instead of candidates, members of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections note in the second monitoring report that was presented by the Independent Journalism Center.
“We have an election campaign with 11 candidates for the office of President. It is a large number, if we compare it to the previous presidential elections. The interest is great, but we would certainly like to see the candidates attending shows, debates. We see that they often send representatives to debates, but the citizen is curious to hear the candidate speaking directly or to watch a debate in which these candidates present their stances and platforms, secretary of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections Polina Panainte stated in a news conference hosted by IPN.
IJC executive director Nadine Gogu said that, in the second week of the election campaign, the candidates for the position of President began to appear in shows. As the electoral debates have also begun, they expect that the next report will show a greater presence of contestants.
“They produce good newscasts at some of the television stations, as we noticed. They cover the activities of all male and female candidates and, respectively, aim to ensure an equal number of seconds while others simply mention them. Then they appear as a number, but do not have direct speech. I cannot explain why some of the stations report on the activities of only 10 out of 11 candidates and the 11th is missing, although this also carried out activities. Maybe the editorial policy stipulates something or they did not have enough time, we don’t know,” said the executive director of the Independent Journalism Center.
The ten monitored TV channels are: Cinema 1, Exclusiv TV, Gagauziya Radio Televizionu (GRT), Jurnal TV, Moldova 1, N 4, Pro TV, TV 8, TVC 21 and TVR Moldova. The electoral programs broadcast in the evening, the main newscasts of the day and electoral debates are monitored. The second report covers the period between September 27 and October 3.
The monitoring will end on October 20.
Note: IPN Agency offers the right of reply to persons who consider that they were targeted in the news articles produced based on the statements of the organizers of this press conference, including by facilitating the organization of another press conference in similar conditions.
