Primarily election runners were quoted in most of the electoral subjects covered by ten TV channels that were monitored by the Independent Journalism Center (IJC), but using only one information source, without treating the subjects in depth, by offering context information or by including other relevant sources. Three TV channels of the ten massively favored candidates of the Electoral Bloc of the Communists and the Socialists and of the Shor Party, disfavoring simultaneously the candidates of the Party of Action and Solidarity. The others didn’t evidently favor or disfavor any of the election contestants, says the first report on the monitoring of audiovisual media in the election campaign prior to the snap parliamentary elections, which was presented by IJC executive director Nadine Gogu in a news conference at IPN.
Media experts said the broadcast electoral materials were primarily correct and equidistant. Most of the analyzed content was unbalanced from the angle of gender equality, the men in the relevant materials being quoted most of the times.
Nadine Gogu said each monitoring report will be submitted to the Audiovisual Council and, if necessary, separate petitions will be sent to particular TV channels. “We will also monitor the activity of the Audiovisual Council and will later monitor the situation to see if they examine the reports or not and will inform about this. If they, as in the past, decide not to take into account what we transmitted, we will react. The Audiovisual Council in this campaign will have the own reports. They must take into account their reports first, when they decide whether to impose a penalty or not,” stated Nadine Gogu.
The monitoring report was produced by the IJC within the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections. The Coalition’s secretary Elena Prohnitski said the platform consists of 36 NGOs that aim to promote free, fair, transparent and inclusive elections by activities to observe and monitor electoral processes and by information and civic education campaigns intended for the voters. “The monitoring of the behavior of media outlets in the electoral period and during the election campaign is an essential component of the Coalition’s activity,” stated Elena Prohnitski.
The first report on the monitoring of audiovisual media in the election campaign prior to the snap parliamentary elections was compiled during June 1-10 and covered ten TV channels. The monitored TV channels were: Moldova 1, Jurnal TV, NTV Moldova, Primul în Moldova, Prime TV, Publika TV, RTR Moldova, Pro TV, Tv 8 and Tv 6. There were analyzed the electoral materials in the main newscasts of the day.
