The Press Council is reminding journalists and editors how important it is to observe professional ethics during elections. At a round table called “During electoral campaigns, we elect... journalistic deontology”, held on Monday, good journalistic practices for covering electoral campaigns, domestic and foreign, were discussed.
Viorica Zaharia, acting president of the Press Council, noted that in many pieces covering elections there is little professional maturity, and electoral programs and politicians' statements are not critically addressed. In order to balance the news coverage of candidates’ electoral promises, journalists should remember whether other candidates have made such promises. “Electoral incidents are selectively covered by some media institutions. Recently, when two electoral contenders were attacked in the territory, some channels only covered one incident, while omitting the other. As a result, their audiences didn’t get the whole picture”, said Viorica Zaharia. She also spoke about how some media outlets report the results of electoral polls, regretting the fact that not all or at least most competitors are asked for an opinion.
Nadine Gogu, director of the Independent Journalism Center, noted that the trends seen in the previous 2014 and 2016 campaigns can also be seen today. The outlets involved in media support programs with funding from foreign donors provide a relatively unbiased coverage of elections, whereas the outlets affiliated with politicians openly favor certain electoral competitors and disadvantages their opponents. According to Nadine Gogu, often it’s the undertones of reports that give the bias away.
Aneta Gonţa, lecturer at the State University’s Faculty of Journalism, presented several foreign examples of good journalistic practices for covering campaigns, emphasizing the responsibility of public broadcasters for complex information to the public about electoral events.
Aneta Grosu, editor-in-chief of “Ziarul de Gardă”, explained why the newspaper decided not to accept electoral advertising in this election campaign. “We had a lot of promotional campaigns on the eve of the campaign, but we decided to deny them all and write in a critical and balanced way about any candidate so the readers are properly informed. We believe that we have gained more freedom, and most of our readers have welcomed this decision,” Aneta Grosu said.
Attending the event, Audiovisual Council president Dragoș Vicol and member Lidia Viziru offered some details about how broadcasters are being monitored in this campaign, based on a set or rules recommended by international experts. They promised that the Council will publish two monitoring reports until the elections and the offending broadcasters will be sanctioned.