Twelve information portals during October 1-10 published 1,061 articles that directly or indirectly referred to the election campaign. Over 94% of them (1,004 texts) were news items with a different complexity level. The protagonists were independent candidate Igor Dodon, who is supported by the Party of Socialists (447 cases), the candidate of the Party of Action and Solidarity Maia Sandu (227 cases), and government officials (209 cases), IPN reports.
In a news conference at IPN, where there was presented the second monitoring report, Petru Macovei, executive director of the Association of Independent Press, said that 9 in 12 portals didn’t ensure the editorial balance, were biased and openly favored or disfavored one or several candidates for President. Most of the portals didn’t offer the right of reply in the articles that contained accusations and the articles were seriously unbalanced from the gender perspective.
As in the previous monitoring periods, the portals Actualitati.md, Aif.md and Kp.md had a similar editorial behavior, with powerful elements of bias, lack of equidistance and journalistic correctness. The publications openly favored and massively promoted Igor Dodon. Other candidates appeared more often than others and, in most of the cases, were disfavored and were even discredited through the frequent use of qualifiers and attacks on person without offering the right of reply.
Noi.md, Sputnik.md and Vedomosti.md favored mainly Igor Dodon through the tone and context. Maia Sandu was evidently disfavored, including through the public opinion articles and through photos that accompanied particular texts.
Unimedia.info covered the electoral process and the activities of candidates, presenting in a favorable light primarily Igor Dodon and Andrei Năstase (PPPDA) and also Violeta Ivanov (Shor Party), who was also presented in articles of an evident advertising character that were marked inappropriately.
Agora.md and Newsmaker.md had a relatively balanced editorial policy, the authors of the articles being generally unbiased towards the sources and protagonists.
Realitatea.md presented all the candidates neutrally and also positively or negatively. Violeta Ivanov was presented in articles of an evident advertising character that were marked inappropriately.
The articles published by Timpul.md presented the candidates in a neutral context and also in a positive or a negative light. Igor Dodon was most often disfavored.
The report was compiled by the Association of Independent Press within the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections with financial support from the National Endowment for Democracy (U.S.).
