During two weeks, 12 monitored information portals published a total of 1,861 articles that refer directly or indirectly to the electoral period and election campaign. Incumbent president Igor Dodon, who is running for a new term in office and is supported by the Party of Socialists, appeared most often as a protagonist.
Igor Dodon was the protagonist in 627 articles or in each third monitored article. At a great distance, the next most frequent protagonists in descending order are PAS candidate for President Maia Sandu, the local public authorities, especially the municipality of Chisinau, and the Central Election Commission, shows the first report on the monitoring of the online media in the electoral period and the campaign prior to the presidential elections that was produced by the Association of Independent Press (API) within the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections.
In a news conference at IPN, the Coalition’s secretary Elena Prohnitski said that the Coalition is a permanent and voluntary entity consisting of 34 public organizations based in the municipality of Chisinau and in other regions. “As in the previous elections, at the upcoming elections the member organizations of the Coalition monitor the election campaign and carry out information, civic education and voter mobilization activities. The members of the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections focus on a number of aspects of the electoral process, such as the conduct of the media outlets in the electoral period and the way in which the media cover the presidential race,” stated Elena Prohnitski.
API executive director Petru Macovei said the monitoring was conducted during September 15-30. There were chosen 12 national portals and a regional portal, in Romanian and Russian, which are known and are indicated as sources of information by different groups of consumers.
The monitoring showed the portal Noi.md was an absolute leader by the number of texts of a political or electoral character published in the period, with 383 articles relevant for the monitoring.
The portals Actualitati.md, Aif.md and Kp.md had a similar editorial policy and concerted approaches. They interpreted in an almost identical, biased way the actions, statements and comments of the same politicians. The portals openly favor and intensively promote Igor Dodon.
The portals Noi.md, Sputnik.md and Vedomosti.md also favored Igor Dodon by the tone and frequency of appearances in a positive context. The PAS candidate Maia Sandu was evidently disadvantaged, while the accusations of some of the candidates and potential candidates weren’t contrasted with the opinion or position of the given person. The few news articles published by the regional portal Gagauzinfo.md favored directly Igor Dodon.
By the tone and frequency of presentations in a positive context, the portal Unimedia.info favored Igor Dodon. The candidate of the PPPDA Andrei Năstase also often appeared in a positive context, while the Shor Party’s candidate Violeta Ivanov was featured in content of an evident advertising character that wasn’t marked appropriately.
The portals Agora.md and Newsmaker.md had a relatively balanced editorial policy, the authors of the articles being generally unbiased in favor of the protagonists, while the candidates and potential candidates for President were most of the times presented in a different context, but without a tendency to favor or disadvantage someone. Realitatea.md presented the candidates and potential candidates for President both neutrally and in a positive or a negative light. Maia Sandu was most often presented in a favorable light, while Violeta Ivanov was featured in content of an evident advertising character that wasn’t marked appropriately.
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The report was produced by the API in the framework of a mass media monitoring project with financial support from the National Endowment for Democracy of the U.S. The monitoring will continue until the election day and, eventually, until the runoffs.
