Teleradio-Moldova is complying slowly with legal provisions – experts

“Teleradio-Moldova” (TRM) is complying too slowly with the provisions of the legislation, and its editorial policy, in particular the newscasts, does not meet the provisions of the Audiovisual Code. This is the conclusion of 10 media and human rights NGOs, which monitor the implementation of the new audiovisual legislation under the aegis of the Electronic Press Association APEL. Corina Fusu, project expert, told a news conference held at Info-Prim Neo that TRM continues to inform the public via the official viewpoint and is not a public service yet (editorially independent), as outlined in the Audiovisual Code. Particularly, after the second one-week monitoring period (May 15-21) of the news programmes “Radiomatinal” and ‘Mesager” it was found that the percentage of news and subjects based on a single source – the official one – is continuing to be very high. The press releases disseminated by governmental bodies also form a large part of the news, which as a rule express a single point of view – the official one. At the same time, the practice to determine the first news topics of the newscast depending on the protagonist (especially key officials of the country) and not on the public importance of the event, according to the duties of the public service, continues to be heavily used. It was also found that to a great extent the news are not written and edited in accordance with the standards of the public service and professional ethics and some materials are broadcasted without a prior investigation and without asking the opinions of all the parties involved. Also, the selection and laudatory presentation of certain events with the participation of the high-ranking officials gives an electoral subtext to the news, the experts say. The monitoring team has also found that the news of TRM have slightly improved since the last monitoring (March 25-31). In this way, the current monitoring report ascertained a decrease in the news with laudatory remarks and in the news where the protagonists are the top officials of the country. However, the changes are insignificant in contrast to the discovered shortcomings. Victor Pantaru, another project expert, presented the results of the monitoring report in the case of the national radio. In this respect, he mentioned that about one third of the news are biased and have a laudatory subtext. During the previous monitoring period (May 25-31), about one half of the news and subjects were biased and laudatory; the number of news where the protagonists are the first 3 persons in the state has reduced by about 50%. At the same time, he mentioned that the number of news and subjects based on a single source – the official one – is still considerable and this fact distorts the truth about the event; the order of the news stories within the newscast is determined by the protagonists of the news and not by the importance of the news etc. In conclusion, Eugen Rabca, APEL expert, said that compared with the situation at the radio station, the situation is more concerning at the National TV station. The reforms are implemented slowly. There is a significant number of biased and laudatory news, which constitute about 50% of the total number of news stories. Also, it is concerning that a considerable number of news present the leadership of the country, but he said that a slight improvement was registered in this respect. The transformation process of the press body of the ruling party – “Teleradio-Moldova” Company in national public audiovisual institution – is too slow, he added. The project “Monitoring the implementation of the Audiovisual Code”, financed by Soros-Moldova Foundation and implemented by 10 NGOs under the umbrella of APEL, aims at creating a public control over the way the new audiovisual legislation is applied in Moldova.