The Press Council Calls on the Journalists not to Involve in Score Settling between Politicians or Business People

The Press Council of the Republic of Moldova published on Tuesday, 17^th of January 2017, a call to journalists, urging them to refrain from involving in score settlement between politicians and business people through the media products and reminds them about their right to refuse editorial assignments that contravene their own beliefs or the ethical rules of journalism, etc.
 
According to the Press Council, the campaigns intended to discredit and stigmatise certain individuals or groups, in which media outlets are involved, have intensified over the past year. “Nearly every day, we hear labelling like “mobster”, “murderer”, “raider”, “oligarch”, etc., that the journalists use in the absence of a definitive court decision. Such practices, as labelling and stigmatisation, contravene the Journalist’s Code of Ethics and the standards of quality journalism, and labelling someone as “criminal”, “offender”, “murderer” entails legal liability. The extensive use of labels is confirmed by the media monitoring reports, as well as by the cases that were or are being examined by the Press Council”, the appeal states.

The Press Council also points out that “the involvement of journalists in producing materials aimed at the denigration of certain persons, provoking sometimes inadequate reactions, instead of revealing the truth for the sake of the better information” could be remarked over the past time. In certain cases, in order to compromise the image of the political opponents of the media owners, articles based on false or partly true information, undocumented materials based on assumptions or on unilateral opinions are taken over from blogs or anonymous and dubious resources. Certain media managers accept that the media resources they manage become a platform for denigrating campaigns”.

The members of the Press Council remind all their colleagues that the role of the journalist is to inform the society correctly, fairly and timely about public interest matters and to monitor the act of governance. “The involvement in any denigrating campaign compromises both the journalists’ reputation and the public trust in the media”, the appeal points out.