During the week before elections, some of the media outlets continued to favor and disfavor electoral competitors. Even if the Democratic Party’s candidate Marian Lupu withdrew from the electoral race, he was a leader by the number of appearances in a positive context at the 12 monitored TV channels. The number of materials that favored him was two times higher than of materials that disfavored him. In contrast, the joint candidate of the center-right parties Maia Sandu was rather disadvantaged than advantaged, shows the last media monitoring report produced by the Association of Independent Press and the Independent Journalism Center.

In a news conference at IPN, Independent Journalism Center head Nadine Gogu said Marian Lupu was the most advantaged candidate on Prime TV, Canal 2, Canal 3 and Publika TV. The candidate of “Our Party” Dumitru Chubashenko and Maia Sandu on the four channels often appeared in a negative context and weren’t allotted much airtime on these.

As during the previous weeks, Jurnal TV favored Maia Sandu by the amount of allotted airtime and by the positive context of the materials. On his channel, Marian Lupu was mainly disfavored, especially in news items of an indirect electoral character. The Party of Socialists’ candidate Igor Dodon was presented in a negative context mainly.

The report shows NTV Moldova and Accent TV favored massively Igor Dodon. Both of the cannels disadvantaged Maia Sandu, presenting her mostly in a negative light.

Moldova 1, Realitatea TV, ProTV Chisinau, TV 7 and N4 had a relatively balanced behavior during the week before elections. Maia Sandu, Igor Dodon, Marian Lupu and Iurie Leanca were most often quoted or mentioned on the 12 monitored TV channels.

Ion Mazur, head of the Advocacy, Publications and Organizational Development of the Association of Independent Press, said Marian Lupu appeared most often in a negative context on the 12 monitored online portals, especially after this announced his decision to abandon the race for the presidency. Igor Dodon and Mihai Ghimpu were rather disadvantaged than advantaged, while Maia Sandu appeared in a positive context more often than in a negative one.

The situation in the print media was similar to that in the online media. The four monitored newspapers disfavored mainly Marian Lupu, while the other candidates were presented both in a positive and in a negative light.