Broadcasting Coordination Council penalizes Jurnal TV

The Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) Wednesday issued a public warning against the TV channel Jurnal TV for broadcasting a rerun news program that contained an electoral topic. The electoral legislation bans the broadcasting of electoral materials the day before the elections, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the Council’s report on how the media outlets covered the election campaign in their news programs during May 2 – 5 shows, on June 4 Jurnal TV rerun a news bulletin of June 3, which included an electoral subject involving young members of the Liberal Party, who campaigned for the Liberal candidate for mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca, and a subject about the electoral promises of the Communist Party’s candidate Igor Dodon. In the same program, the Democratic Party’s candidate Valentina Buliga campaign against the PCRM. The proposal to issue a public warning was submitted by the BCC member Dinu Ciocanu, who said that broadcasting electoral materials the day before the elections is a flagrant violation of the law. Five of the nine members of the BCC voted in favor of penalizing Jurnal TV. The same report shows that the public TV channel Moldova 1 covered the events featuring representatives of the Government in a positive context. They were able to more often state their opinions directly. The largest number of electoral subjects was aired by the channel NIT. It was openly biased in favor of the PCRM and its candidate Igor Dodon. The channels Euro TV Chisinau, Prime, N4 and TV 7 observed the principle of presenting more than one sources in the conflictual subjects broadcast as part of the news programs. There were recorded no serious deviations that would arouse concerns as regards the covering of the election campaign. The news reports of the channel Prime favored slightly the Democratic Party and its candidate for mayor of Chisinau Valentina Buliga, while TV 7 presented the Government and the PLDM in a rather favorable light. In a forthcoming meeting, the BCC will make public the final report on the monitoring of the broadcasters in the period of the election campaign.