The Press Council of Moldova examined an alleged case of organized evacuation of students of the Chisinau Lyceum “Gheorghe Asachi” within a simulation of an attack by the Russian army on Moldova following relevant manipulating reports on the portals point.md, moldnews.md and omg.md taken from a social networking site. In reality, the students had been involved in a civil protection exercise following a possible earthquake. Such exercises are staged every school year, IPN reports.
The Press Council’s members established that the portals that disseminated the information seriously deviated from the basic provisions of the Journalist’s Deontological Code which say that the journalists must verify the broadcast information so as to make sure that it is accurate and balanced. They also determined that the public opinion was intentionally misinformed and manipulated and held that the publication of provoking information inciting interethnic hatred is inadmissible.
It was also determined that the comments instigating hatred were not moderated. The Press Council reminds the media outlets that regardless of the platform and specific features of the portals, they have the obligation not to publish instigating information and to moderate the comments of such a character.
Press Council head Ludmila Andronic called on the portals that published unverified information to admit that they misled the public opinion about the exercise at the Lyceum “Gheorghe Asachi” and to remove this information from the websites.
