The fact that some of the portals clearly discredit against some of the candidates for President shows once again how big the stake of the upcoming elections is and also shows the way in which the political parties and candidates widely use the portals to discredit the political opponents in the current campaign, says the third report on the monitoring of the online media during the electoral period and the campaign prior to the presidential elections produced by the Association of Independent Press (API) as part of the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections.

In a news conference at IPN, API executive director Petru Macovei said that labeling and tagging were also used in the previous period, but now things worsened. The closer are the elections, the greater will be the number of situations of the kind even if the civil society organizations called on the candidates to avoid hate speech. There is also the Code that was signed by some of the candidates.

The report that covered the period between October 11 and 17 says that most of the articles on political or electoral themes broadcast by the 12 monitored portals had only one source of information. The editorial offices published unbalanced articles without the reply of those who were accused. The candidates were presented selectively and some of the portals overlooked the existence of some of electoral competitors and oriented themselves to the preferred candidates. Some of the portals act like the mouthpiece of independent candidate Igor Dodon and even campaign in favor of him directly or indirectly.

Petru Macovei noted the articles published by the 12 monitored media outlets were significantly disproportionate in terms of gender, being in favor of men. It does not come to the absence of women, but to the absence of dexterity and professionalism in journalism as a journalistic product can always be balanced by presenting one, two or three female sources if the protagonist or the main source is a man.

“However, I would not put the whole blame on the colleagues from the media as our society, in general, is very clearly marked by the tendency to promote primarily men in politics, while the media are ultimately the refection of society. But I insist that the journalists can anytime balance the masculinized content,” concluded the API director.