Fake News and Quality of Moldovan Media, in the Attention of Participants of the Media Forum

Fake news, manipulation in the media, and methods of combating them dominated the discussions at the 2017 edition of the Media Forum, the annual event that debates the problems faced by the journalistic community. Participants noted the toxic effect of fake news and the poor quality of media in Moldova.

Participants in the Media Forum were journalists, media managers, diplomats and representatives of Moldovan authorities.

Peter Michalko, EU Ambassador in Chisinau, underlined that free and independent media are the pillar of democratic society and that the EU will keep supporting the development of Moldovan media, because pluralistic and diverse media are essential for a free society.

Speaker of the Moldovan Parliament Andrian Candu, who was one of the speechmakers at the Media Forum, added that one of the solutions used by authorities to fight propaganda was to force broadcasters to increase the share of domestic products aired. “In fact, it was also a suggestion of development partners – to thus try to fight propaganda and disinformation, by encouraging creation of domestic products,” he explained.

Andrian Candu also said that the measures to fight propaganda and disinformation will be reflected in draft laws that are being developed by the working group created for improvement of media legislation.

Daniel Kaddik, Project Director at Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, Germany, mentioned that the language used by a media outlet is one of the most important tools. The expert spoke about the great number of Russian stations broadcast in Moldova and said that one of the biggest problems in terms of fake news is the fact that some media outlets exploit citizens’ trust in the media.

Another guest of the Forum was the Deputy Director of the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism (Ohio State University, USA), Kevin Z. Smith. The expert admitted that the phenomenon of fake news is a very important problem in the USA, too. He mentioned that those who spread fake news aim to divide societies, and fake news are in fact manipulation, intended to deprive the public of power.

Viorica Zaharia, chair of the Press Council, noted, in her turn, that fake news has been forming the public agenda lately, and some journalists fabricate a parallel reality, spreading falsified images.

“Fake news, in my opinion, is not only the completely untrue or invented news, but also the news in which facts are combined with opinions and the truth is combined with lies,” Viorica Zaharia said.

The media expert added that sometimes journalists find it difficult to see what is false, and for simple consumers the task of finding falsehood is even harder, since they do not have all means for verification. Also, the chair of the Press Council drew attention to the fact that the public is extremely burdened with pseudo-news, spread in order to disorient people.

Nadine Gogu, Executive Director of the Independent Journalism Center (IJC), in her turn underlined the important role of the quality of media in provision of correct information to people and its impact on the democratization of the country. Nadine Gogu noted that quality journalism is one of the indicators showing the extent of democratization and that the quality of media in Moldova is regressing.

The IJC executive director also explained the concept of “vicious circle” used by media researchers to describe the quality of media.

“Quality journalism ensures provision of correct information to citizens, so informed citizens can hold authorities accountable and make informed decisions. Thus, authorities, or the government, take on responsibility, and a responsible government can’t avoid supporting quality journalism. At first glance, it seems quite a simple algorithm, but it is inapplicable in many countries, especially where there is not much quality journalism. Unfortunately, Moldova is one of such countries, because from what we’ve been seeing lately, we are regressing in this regard,” Nadine Gogu said.

The Media Forum 2017 is taking place on November 14 and 15 in Chisinau. The agenda of this third edition of the forum includes debates with the participation of media professionals, officials from Moldova and representatives of foreign embassies and representative offices, as well as workshops and master classes with experts from Germany, Poland, Romania, Israel, United States of America, and Latvia.

The first Media Forum in Moldova took place in the autumn of 2015.