Some TV stations go on acting as heralds of some political parties: APEL

The TV stations N4 and EuTV repeatedly committed severe violations of the regulations on covering the electoral campaign, in addition to the fact that, together with NIT and Moldova 1, they went on treating unfairly, tendentiously and in an unbalanced way, the political actors involved in the electoral process. The conclusions are stated in the fourth report on monitoring the presence of political actors in the programs of the TV channels compiled by the Electronic Press Association from March 18 through 24, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to APEL's report, the data on monitoring newscasts in the 7th week of the race show that NIT, N4 and Moldova 1 went on acting as heralds of the PCRM, and Eu TV went on promoting the PPCD. At the same time, ProTV, TV7 and TVC21 have reconfirmed their previous practice of approaching the actors involved in the electoral race in a balanced quantity. “In terms of duration of appearances in news bulletins, Vladimir Voronin, the PCRM leader, was the first in a top 10 on 7 out of 8 monitored tv services. Only on a single station – Eu TV -- V. Voronin was the second in this ranking,” said Constantin Marin, the dean of the Journalism Faculty of the Moldova State University. According to him, Eu TV covered PLDM leader Vlad Filat the most. The report proves the PCRM was the mostly covered party. 6 out of 8 stations granted priority to this party (TV7, NIT, Pro TV, N4, Moldova 1 and Prime). Other two stations – TVC21 and Eu TV – put, respectively, PLDM and PPCD on position 1, as they had done in the previous monitoring session. Speaking about the quality dimension of the presence of political actors in newscasts, Constantin Marin notes a drop in the news stories in which the televisions display good or bad attitudes toward certain politicians. “In programs, two parties -- PCRM and PPCD (on la Eu TV and N4) – benefit from positive-context presence. The AMN, the PLDM and the PL as a rule are presented in a negative context, and their exponents are disfavored most often,” said Victor Moraru, a university professor. The observers certify that N4 broadcast hidden advertising in the PCRM's favor in two programs, what is illegal. Eu TV and TV7 aired electoral ads exceeding the normative frame. The project “Monitoring the political/electoral actors on the main TV channels during the pre-election, election and post-election periods of the 2009 parliamentary elections” is financed by the Delegation of the European Commission in Moldova within the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, is co-funded by the Soros Foundation-Moldova, and takes place within the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections – Coalition 2009.