The election contender Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) was the protagonist of most of the content broadcast by ten monitored portals, but it was also placed in a negative context most often. On the other hand, the Electoral Bloc of the Communists and the Socialists (EBCS) was presented in a positive context most often, shows the first report on the monitoring of the editorial behavior of online media during the electoral period and the campaign prior to the snap parliamentary elections. The report that covered the period between June 1 and June 10 was compiled by the Association of Independent Press (API) and was presented by the Association’s expert Aneta Gonţa in a news conference at IPN.
The expert said that in general, the media experts analyzed 1,107 articles and features that directly or indirectly referred to the electoral period and the campaign preceding the snap parliamentary elections. According to the report, the content published by the monitored portals was disproportionate from the viewpoint of gender, in favor of men, who were quoted three times more often than women. The portals preferred the political subjects or the actions or parties, while the electoral process was covered less frequently (the ratio was one article about the electoral process to five news items and/or opinions about politics and parties). There were published primarily news articles about election contenders, their political activities, process of registering with the CEC and start of the campaign.
“During June 1-10, 2021, the ten monitored online publications treated mainly political subjects in an electoral context and less the electoral process in general. Three publications had a relatively balanced editorial policy in relation to male or female protagonists, including election contenders. Another three publications massively promoted particular contenders, while in four cases no evident favoring or disfavoring was ascertained in the period. Several portals had a hostile editorial behavior to some of the election contenders, with attacks on persons, including insulting images and adjusted electoral jokes aimed at disfavoring particular contenders,” stated Aneta Gonța.
According to the report, most of the protagonists of the broadcast content were representatives of the PAS, with 418 appearances. The PPPDA comes next with 263 appearances, being followed by the PSRM with 256 appearances. By the sources of the content, the PAS ranks third with 154 quoted sources, even if the party was mentioned in a large number of articles.
The monitored portals were selected by the API according to such criteria as relevance, repute or audience, language of broadcast and geography. The monitoring is conducted within the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections and will continue until the election day. The API will present reports after each ten days of campaign. The Coalition’s secretary Elena Prohnitski said the Association of Independent Press is one of the member organizations of the Coalition. “The members of the Coalition focus not only on televised media that are preferred by citizens as sources of information, but also on online media outlets that become increasingly popular,” stated the secretary.
The ten monitored portals were: Actualităţi.md, Agora md, Găgăuzinfo.md, Kp.md, Newsmaker.md, Noi.md, Realitatea.md, Sputnik.md, Timpul.md and Unimedia.info. The report is produced in the framework of a project that is financed by the National Endowment for Democracy (U.S.).
