Infotag distorts statements made during IJC conference

On Wednesday, the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) launched the top of the most transparent and active public institutions in Moldova from the perspective of online publication of open data. (The top can be seen here: http://www.media-azi.md/ro/stiri/topul-celor-mai-deschise-institu%C5%A3ii-prezentat-de-cji) Information about the monitoring conducted by media experts was presented and analyzed at a press conference on Wednesday, available online at http://youtu.be/lChd-CvQ31U . Subsequently, the IJC team received an article published by the Infotag news agency on its subscribers’ channel, and some data in it were vague, with significant discrepancies between the topic of the conference and what the reporter wrote. Moreover, the Infotag article features a quote that did not come from a speaker. The quote, given in quotation marks, has nothing in common with the topic of the conference or with open data, proving that the Infotag reporter made no distinction between the concept of “open data” and the transparency of public institutions’ press services to mass media. The article was later republished by Pan.md and Point.md: the former eliminated the last paragraph in the article, the one with the false quote, and Point.md republished it fully. We are presenting here the print screens from the two websites, including the paragraph on Point.md. Watching the IJC conference on YouTube, you can see that no expert or any other speaker mentioned the Reintegration Bureau, the transparency of Moldovan press services, or other topics wrongly attributed by Infotag.