The mass media are used as a cudgel by some of the election contenders for attacking their opponents, the paradox being that the voters, even if they say they no longer want corruption, do not penalize the parties that have candidates with integrity problems, consider Nadine Gogu, head of the Independent Journalism Center, and Cornelia Cozonac, head of Journalistic Investigations Center. According to the journalists, since the election campaign started, many media outlets have shown to be biased and non-objective in covering electoral events, IPN reports.
The Independent Journalism Center during June 1-10 monitored the most important TV channels of the Republic of Moldova. Of the ten channels, two considerably favored the PCRM-PSRM Bloc, while one – the Shor Party. All the three channels disfavored the PAS.
“The role of the press is not to only correctly cover and not to favor an election contestant. The role is to also not disadvantage other contenders, but we are yet witnessing something like this. There are media outlets that are used by some of the runners as a cudgel for attacking their political opponents. I have seen a lot of accusatory news items that lack reply or evidence, but many people believe what they see on TV,” Independent Journalism Center director Nadine Gogu stated in the talk show “Emphasize on Today” on TVR Moldova channel.
According to investigative journalists, even though the press has been writing about corruption schemes and involvement of politicians, these can be found on the lists of election contenders.
“We have again people with a suspect past and integrity problems among the current candidates. In the previous elections, we compiled blacklists of runners with integrity problems. A lot of them take part in the current campaign too. It is a paradox. On the one hand, the people complain about corrupt persons who come and rob them. On the other hand, we can see that in elections, corrupt persons who have been criticized for years are again on the lists. They are not afraid of the voters and this is the problem. Otherwise, they would no longer include persons with a suspect pas in the lists,” stated Journalistic Investigations Center director Cornelia Cozonac.
Twenty-one candidates were officially registered as contenders in the July 11 snap parliamentary elections. Another three files are under examination. Therefore, the ballots will include at most 24 election contestants.
