Maia Sandu's team accepts any moderator for the debate with Alexandr Stoianoglo and asks the Press Council to propose the journalist. The clarification was made this morning, following the statement issued on Tuesday by the Press Council and the announcement by a number of television channels that they will not broadcast the debates if they are moderated by Gheorghe Gonța. The controversy in the journalistic environment did not make Maia Sandu's staff to reject the candidacy of Gonța, proposed by Alexandr Stoianoglo's team. “We will go to the debate with any moderator agreed by the Council and coordinated with the opponent,” the representative of Maia Sandu's electoral staff Adrian Băluțel told IPN.
“We do not have a principled position in this case. Maia Sandu's team did not choose this moderator," said Băluțel. “Therefore, a position between the journalistic community and the opponent's team must be agreed.
"We ask the Press Council to propose a format of debates so that we do not find ourselves in the situation where the journalistic community challenges the format in which this debate will take place. We ask them to propose a moderator and consider with the opponent’s team the moderator proposed by them. We saw that, in fact, the Press Council considers the proposed moderator does not meet the deontological norms. Our position remains the same – we will go to a debate with any moderator, even Gheorghe Gonța. However, we realize that if not all the press covers this debate, if it is moderated by Gheorghe Gonța, the debate will not reach the citizens,” said Adrian Băluțel.
The Press Council on Tuesday challenged the proposal of Alexandr Stoianoglo's team for journalist Gheorghe Gonța to moderate the debate between the opponents that will contend in the runoff election. A statement issued by the Council says that “it is a lack of respect for the public, legitimization of behaviors lacking integrity and promotion of practices that are absolutely inconsistent with professional and ethical journalism.” The Council reminds that Gheorghe Gonța repeatedly admitted in his interviews that he accepted "money in an envelope" from politicians.
