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Ludmila Andronic, Сhairman of Еhe Press Council: “It Is Unethical to Make Assumptions in News”

20 January 2016
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În Moldova
Over the past several days, messages appeared on social networks about the disappearance of some young people – an 11-year-old girl from the town of Soroca, a male student of the Economic Academy of Moldova and a female student of the University of Medicine. Online posts were instantly reproduced by mass media, which multiplied the messages from social networks. Ludmila Andronic, chairman of the Press Council, believes that journalists should not limit themselves to assumptions, but they should do their research before writing news on this topic. Also, in her opinion, the police should have informed citizens through a press release about the actions taken and about the fact that two of the young people that disappeared had already been found.

Concerned about the destiny of the three youths, people voiced all kinds of assumptions in social networks – that they had been kidnapped, that there were some schemes for that, etc. Several media outlets reproduced these posts, but did not seek the opinion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Here are only some of the headlines that appeared in the media on this topic: “Kidnapping scheme? The testimony of a young girl from Chisinau,” “Warning! Here is a possible scheme through which people mysteriously disappear from Chisinau,” “In Moldova, people are kidnapped and sold for organ transplants?”

We asked Press Council chairman Ludmila Andronic to share her opinion about how this topic was covered by the media. Here is her commentary:

“In case of information of public interest, the media is truly an important force for rapid dissemination of information. But I feel that discussions about the assumed reasons of these people’s disappearance are unethical and should be avoided. We shouldn’t make assumptions in news, it is not ethical. We should offer facts to society, without speculating on emotions.

Alerting the society about the fact that someone disappeared and cannot be found, especially when that someone is a child, is an action of civic activism. But reproducing unverified information and not making efforts to verify it, i.e. making assumptions that arouse despair, are violations of the Deontology Code.

As these youths had been found, the police had to inform about it. It is their mistake, but also a mistake of the media – as soon as they assumed that they might have been kidnapped and sold for organ transplants, the media no longer called the police. I think that they forced the situation intentionally and out of opportunism, because the situation in the country is so tense, that apocalyptic scenarios are very easily adopted by some media outlets.

I think that when the police found the young man, they should have issued a press release. Just like with the girl from Soroca. After all, it is in their interest, and I don’t know why they failed to do so”.