TRM was mainly impartial in post-electoral period, report

The national public broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova (TRM) ensured a satisfactory balance between the parliamentary parties in the post-electoral period, shows a monitoring report produced by the Electronic Press Association (APEL) within the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections. In a news conference on Wednesday, mass media expert Vlad Turcanu said that after the elections, TRM continued to impartially cover the political events, offering airtime to a large number of politicians, statesmen and experts. Generally, the company fulfilled its obligations, ensuring political plurality and observing the professional, deontological norms, except for several cases when the news stories were based on only one source of information. Thirty-five of the 301 news items aired by Moldova 1 in the monitored period were conflictual in character, while six of them had only one source. Radio Moldova also broadcast news based on one source, but not very many. The report shows there was a balance between the negative and positive news stories centering on the parties and political organizations. Vlad Turcanu said most of the news about the political system were neutral. Of the 58 state officials and politicians who appeared in the news programs of Moldova 1, Premier designate Vlad Filat took the first position. He was followed by Head of Parliament Marian Lupu and the leader of the Liberal Party Mihai Ghimpu. The first three places on Radio Moldova are taken by the same political players. The news on Radio Moldova focused mainly on the PDM, PLDM, PL and PCRM as well as the extraparliamentary party MAE. The report also shows that the politicians prevail among the protagonists who appeared on TRM, being followed by civil servants, experts and ordinary people. The protagonists were mainly men. At the same time, in the campaign preceding the election of the Governor of Gagauzia, Moldova 1 presented the Communist candidate Irina Vlah in a negative light, favoring Mihail Formuzal and Nicolae Dudoglo, who benefited from more airtime. The monitoring covered the period between December 1 and 31. This is the sixth report by APEL compiled with support from Soros Foundation Moldova within the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections.