The Independent Journalism Center between October 1 and November 5 will be monitoring the behavior of ten TV channels in the election campaign and the access they offer to election contenders to news items. The first monitoring report for October 1-11 was presented on Friday.

The report was compiled within the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections. “The Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections was founded in 2005 and currently consists of 39 public organizations of the Republic of Moldova. The Coalition’s mission is to contribute to developing democracy in the Republic of Moldova by promoting and encouraging the conduct of free and fair elections in accordance with the international standards by which the Republic of Moldova abides,” secretary of the Coalition Grigore Stegărescu, ADEPT projects coordinator, stated in a news conference hosted by IPN.

Among the Coalition’s activities are programs aimed at observing and monitoring the electoral process, monitoring the conduct of the media in elections, ensuring civic and electoral education, informing voters, and promoting inclusive elections.

Independent Journalism Center executive director Nadine Gogu said the current monitoring effort is different from the similar activities conducted at previous elections. Emphasis is now placed on content, on qualitative analysis and less on quantitative analysis. They analyze the behavior of the mass media in the election campaign and the elevation contenders’ access to the media or to news items in the media, and also the reporting tendencies that can eventually affect the performance of the media outlets and can compromise their capacity to offer correct, impartial and pluralistic information to the public.

Nadine Gogu said that they selected ten public and private TV channels with national coverage, which broadcast in Romanian and in Russian, namely Moldova 1, TVR Moldova, Jurnal TV, Pro TV, TV 8, Cinema 1, ITV, Orizont TV, Vocea Basarabiei, and Exclusiv TV.

A news bulletin from prime time was chosen and its content was fully monitored. “We examined news items that were directly or indirectly electoral in character. We carried out content and context assessments to see if these news items are eventually favorable or detrimental to a party, a political entity or an election runner,” explained Nadine Gogu.

In the monitoring effort, the report authors used a number of objective coverage criteria, such as impartiality and objectivity, political bias, correctness and balance of sources, pluralism of opinion, used language and images.

Note: IPN News Agency offers the right of reply to persons who consider they were touched by the news items produced based on statements made by the organizers of the given news conference, including by facilitating the organization of another news conference in similar conditions.