The Broadcasting Coordination Council imposed the highest fine possible on seven TV channels that violated the regulations concerning the covering of the campaign prior to the October 30 presidential elections. Prime TV, Canal 2, Canal 3, Publika TV, Accent TV, Jurnal TV and NTV Moldova will have to pay by 5,400 lei. TV7 and Ren TV Moldova were warned publicly. The monitoring covered 14 TV channels and was carried out during October 20-30, IPN reports.
According to the monitoring report, the fined TV channels evidently favored one candidate. Ren TV Moldova and NTV were penalized for misinformation as they broadcast a feature report saying the candidate for President of the Party “Action and Solidarity” Maia Sandu accepted to bring 30,000 Syrian refugees to Moldova.
Council member Dragos Vicol suggested imposing the highest fine on the seven TV channels, saying the political bias in favor of election runners is even more serious than the violation of the Broadcasting Code.
Member Mariana Onceanu-Hadarca proposed that when a TV channel is fined for deviations from the Broadcasting Code, the article that is violated should be explained so that the consumers of information also know what violations were committed.
