The Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) ascertained a slight improvement in the coverage of the election campaign by 13 TV channels whose news bulletins were monitored in the period between May 28 and June 6. In its June 12 meeting, the Council approved the third monitoring report. The broadcasters were warned against campaigning during the next two days. If the second round of voting is held, they must cover the election campaign impartially and equidistantly, IPN reports.

Head of the TV Monitoring Division Elena Crasmaru said the monitored TV channels in the period covered the electoral activities of 16 of the 17 contestants running for the mayoralty of Chisinau. The candidate of the Party “Ravnopravie” Valery Klimenko never appeared in the news programs. Among the contestants who appeared most often on TV are the Liberal Democratic Party’s candidate Serafim Urechean, the Liberal Party’s candidate Dorin Chirtoaca and the Democratic Party’s candidate Monica Babuc. The representatives of the broadcasters explained that particular candidates staged more events and thus appeared more often in the news.

The BCC members established also that the regulations concerning the covering of the election campaign were better respected. However, some of the broadcasters favored particular election runners by presenting them in a positive light or by providing more airtime to them directly or indirectly.

The report showed that the public TV channel Moldova 1 covered only the activities of the election runners from Chisinau and Balti. The BCC members recommended that this channel should cover the election campaign in a larger number of regions in the second round of voting.