The journalists can use in their articles anonymous sources, but the information collected from these should be verified by using other sources, the Press Council of the Republic of Moldova concluded after examining an application from the Superior Council of Magistracy over an article about a female judge of the Supreme Court of Justice published on Deschide.md, IPN reports.
Deschide.md published an article based on sources whose identity was protected. This says that businessman Veaceslav Platon allegedly bribed judges of the Supreme Court of Justice and of the Appeals Court who examined his case. The negative information collected from the given anonymous sources was published without asking at least for the opinion/reply of the involved judges.
This way, in the June 19 meeting held online, the Press Council ascertained that the Journalist’s Deontological Code of the Republic of Moldova was violated as the author of the news item didn’t question the authenticity of the collected information and didn’t present the opinion of all the relevant sides. The Press Council recommends the journalists of Deschide.md to make approaches to collect information from credible and citable sources, to respect the wish of the source of information to remain anonymous and to simultaneously assume responsibility for the authenticity of the published information obtained from anonymous sources. The Council submitted a notification over this case to the editorial staff, but didn’t receive an answer from this.
In the same meeting, the Press Council examined the complaint of a man held in a penitentiary in Rezina district against the portal Kp.md. He accuses the editorial staff of discrimination and harming of his honor and dignity in an article featuring him. The Council ascertained that the article violates the non-discrimination norms deontological. As this is the third complaint of the kind and the Press Council’s decisions are neglected by the portal’s editorial staff, the Council decided to request the Council for Preventing and Eliminating Discrimination and Ensuring Equality to assess the editorial approach of Kp.md toz subjects concerning detainees.
The Press Council also adopted a decision after examining a number of comments that incite hatred to an article published on the Facebook page of Agora.md. The portal reacted swiftly to the Council’s notifications and the comments were eliminated. Press Council prescient Viorica Zaharia encourages the editorial staffs to correct the editorial mistakes as quickly.
