Teleradio-Moldova performs better than in previous elections

The national public broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova has improved its performance compared with the period that preceded the April 5, 2009 elections, ensuring acceptable political pluralism. The statement was made by the mass media expert Vlad Turcanu on Tuesday, during the presentation of the second report on the monitoring of the public broadcasters carried out by the Electronic Press Association (APEL) during September 7 – October 15, Info-Prim Neo reports. The report titled “Monitoring of political pluralism in the news programs of the national public broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova and regional public broadcaster Teleradio-Gagauzia” forms part of a project supported by the Mass Media Project of Soros-Moldova Foundation, within the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections. Vlad Turcanu said they took into account the number of political news stories, the frequency and length of the appearance of the political players as well as the number of sources, the appearance context, and the journalist's attitude. Acting President and chairman of the Liberal Party Mihai Ghimpu appeared most often on the public TV channel Moldova 1 (915 seconds), being followed by the Liberal-Democrat Premier Vlad Filat (594) and Communist leader Vladimir Voronin (468). The situation at the public radio station is much the same. Among political parties, the Communists Party had the longest presence on the public TV channel. Vlad Turcanu says this is due to the fact that the PCRM replies to most of the accusations made by the leaders of the governing alliance. In conclusion, the expert said Teleradio-Moldova broadcast a sufficient number of political news items. The number of items with a conflictual character was higher on the TV channel than on the radio station. Teleradio-Moldova ensured acceptable political pluralism and neutrality. The Electronic Press Association will continue monitoring the public radio and TV stations and will produce other reports.