The third edition of the Media Forum – an annual event that debates the problems faced by the journalistic community – took place in Chisinau on November 14 and 15. The issues addressed at the Forum in 2017 were related to fake news, manipulation in the media, and quality of Moldovan media in general, and its agenda included debates with the participation of media professionals, Moldovan officials, and representatives of foreign embassies and representative offices, as well as workshops and master classes with experts from Germany, Poland, Romania, Israel, United States, and Latvia.

The Independent Journalism Center, with the financial support of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Bucharest, launched an exhibition of the World Press Photo 2017 in Chisinau. The World Press Photo Contest 2017 got applications from 5,034 photographers from 125 countries with 80,408 pictures. The jury awarded prizes in eight categories to 45 photographers from 25 countries. Before coming to Moldova, the World Press Photo 2017 exhibition visited over 100 cities in 45 countries and was seen by over 4 million people.

Moldovan media organizations expressed their concern about the jamming of the “Politics with Natalia Morari” program, aired by TV8 television station on Thursday, November 2, 2017. They qualify this act as restriction of the right of access to information and freedom of expression. The Independent Journalism Center, the Association of Independent Press, the Electronic Press Association, and other media NGOs asked the Broadcasting Coordinating Council to take note of this incident and to demand explanations from television service providers about it. They pointed out that according to Article 34 of the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, “the right to have access to any information of public interest cannot be restricted,” and that intentional prevention of media activities is punishable by law.

On November 22, the public television station Moldova 1 launched an hour-long talk show, the “Red Button,” which will be aired weekly. The station’s management had previously announced that this show was being produced in response to opposition parties’ requests to be offered an hour of airtime. According to the concept of the “Red Button” show, there will be four guests on the set – a government representative or an author of a socially important draft law, two representatives of the extra-parliamentary opposition, and a representative of non-governmental organizations. However, the Action and Solidarity Party spokeswoman Cristina Bujor told Media-azi.md that “opposition parties asked for something completely different.” “Opposition parties asked for an hour for opposition, when people would have access to information that is different from what the government delivers, not a show where a representative of authorities – either from PSRM [Party of Socialists] or from PD [Democratic Party] – is always present,” Cristina Bujor said.

The Press Council of the Republic of Moldova appealed to all media outlets to avoid sensationalist reporting and not to spotlight violent actions aimed at humiliating some person. The message came after the news portal Telegraph.md published on November 5, 2017, a news story about physical aggression and alleged rape committed by a group of people on a 16-year-old girl in Ialoveni district. Telegraph.md disseminated mobile phone footage containing scenes of violence, which was subsequently taken over by some Moldovan television stations and news portals. The Press Council pointed out that the manner in which this case of abuse was presented is contrary to professional ethics, and it urged journalists not to report on details affecting the human dignity of the victim.

 

At the regional conference “ALERT Cyber Drill,” which took place in Chisinau on November 21-23, the Special Telecommunications Center (STC) General Director Serghei Popovici announced that a national center for response to cyber security incidents will be created in Moldova. According to him, a project of such a center will soon be examined and approved by the Government. Moldova already has a cyber security center – CERT-GOV-MD, – which is charged with responding to incidents related to the security of information systems, but it does not cover all aspects of cyber security. Natalia Spinu, head of CERT-GOV-MD, finds that Moldova has advanced technologies, but not enough relevant professionals. At the conference, she pointed out that there were over 6 million attempts of cyber attacks in Moldova in 2016 alone.

Following a monitoring report, the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) issued a public warning to seven television stations for not complying with the obligation to broadcast at least eight hours of domestic products daily, but it has not sanctioned other stations that violated the same article of the law. Thus, according to the monitoring report, public warnings were issued to television stations Canal 3, STS Mega, N4, RTR Moldova, NTV Moldova, Exclusiv TV, and Ren Moldova. At the same time, no sanctions were applied to television stations Prime (which aired only 04 hours 59 minutes 25 seconds of domestic products a day), Canal 2 (06 hours 09 minutes 53 seconds of domestic products daily), and others. Media expert Petru Macovei finds this attitude of the BCC is selective and discriminating to the sanctioned stations and believes that the BCC has protected the stations belonging to Democratic Party chairman Vlad Plahotniuc.

On November 10, at the meeting of the working group for improvement of the media legislation, the Speaker of Parliament Andrian Candu announced that the draft of the new Broadcasting Code will be sent for expert examination to the Venice Commission after it is registered as a legislative initiative in the Parliament, and that it might be voted in the spring of 2018. The experts involved in developing this code said that work on the document is about to be completed. According to media expert Ion Bunduchi, a member of this expert subgroup, the last paragraphs of the document are being finalized. The working group for improvement of the media legislation is a mechanism of cooperation between the Parliament and representatives of media outlets, international institutions, and media NGOs.

On November 8, Council of Europe experts presented in Chisinau a series of opinions and recommendations on amendments to the legislation governing protection of personal data, formulated in a new draft law prepared by the National Center for Personal Data Protection (NCPDP). Experts find that the Center’s proposals to require justification for obtaining data (under Article 9 of the new law, which regulates processing of personal data in connection with freedom of expression) might create problems in the work of journalists. NCPDP representatives claim, in their turn, that those provisions would offer greater clarity to information providers in terms of ensuring the right to provide information.

The Independent Journalism Center announced the winner of the contest organized to select beneficiaries for the grants for campaigns against disinformation and propaganda in the media, offered as part of the “Media Enabling Democracy, Inclusion and Accountability in Moldova” (MEDIA-M) project. The chosen applicant, out of the 8 total contenders, is the company LEADGEN SRL (proposed project: “Combating Fake News and Statements by Fact Checking and Producing Interactive Video Content”).

The Emerging Opportunities Grants contest, which had entries from 55 applicants, has been summed up. Following the evaluation of applications, the jury chose the following winners: NGO “Positive Initiative”; youth news website #diez (project: “#diez goes on app”); public association “Ca Lumea” (project: “Online Show ‘Internet Speaking’”); Moldova.org portal (project: “Combating Fake News and Statements by Fact Checking and Developing Interactive Video Content”); periodical publication SP, Balti city; periodical publication Observatorul de Nord, Soroca city. Emerging Opportunities Grants are offered by the Independent Journalism Center as a partner of the MEDIA-M project. The “Media Enabling Democracy, Inclusion and Accountability in Moldova” (MEDIA-M) project is funded by the USAID and implemented by Internews.

Three Moldovan media outlets – Canal Regional, Moldova.org, and Locals.md – participated in the Media Innovations Laboratory “Gamification and Public Engagement” on November 16-18 in Kiev. At the event, journalists from three countries – Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova – worked together on developing models and tools that would enable media organizations use multimedia content more efficiently and improve online public engagement. The jury chose three winners, one team from each of the three countries: Moldova.org (Moldova), Tvoye Misto (Ukraine), and IFact (Georgia). Each of the winning teams will receive a grant of USD 2,000 and will have two months to implement their projects.

Thirty students and ten teachers met on Saturday, November 11, in Chisinau, to share their experiences of implementing media projects in their schools. The projects were a continuation of activities conducted at the “Filter Information” summer camp, held between August 20 and 26, at the end of which participating teams received small grants of EUR 300 each from the Independent Journalism Center (IJC). Three students and one teacher from each of the ten schools conducted activities for their colleagues, promoting media literacy.

The Independent Journalism Center (IJC) conducted follow-up activities for the optional course of Media Education. Over 40 teachers from several regions of the country came to Chisinau on November 2 and 3 to present their teaching plans for the optional course of Media Education, which is to be carried out during homeroom hours, at meetings with parents, or at seminars at the school departments of primary education. Each participant presented her teaching plan and shared impressions about the course. The purpose of the optional course of Media Education is to increase the students’ understanding and rational use of the media and to educate a well-informed and responsible citizen and media consumer.

A group of 25 students from the theoretic High School in Holercani village of Dubasari district participated in a media literacy lesson organized by the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) on Thursday, November 23. The moderator of this activity, journalist Liliana Barbarosie from Radio Free Europe, explained to young people how to filter information that appears in the media or on social networking websites in order to identify manipulating news. She drew the attention of the young people to the fact that several televisions, if they are held by a single owner, do not ensure media pluralism. From the journalist, students also found out about the difference between manipulation and propaganda.

In Moldova, women earn less than men, and their salaries make about 87% of a man’s salary, according to the National Statistics Bureau. This topic was debated in one of the November editions of the “Divided by Two” [Romanian “Împărțit la doi”] show, which discussed salary differences between men and women. The second November edition of this cycle of shows covered gender inequalities in health care. In Moldova, women are usually the ones responsible for family planning. For this reason, men often ignore visits to relevant medical professionals. And while women are encouraged to visit a gynecologist at least once a year, men often do not even know what doctor they should go to when they need.

The Press Council has appealed to media outlets to show professionalism in the coverage of cases of violence. Why do media outlets release such materials and what are the main ethical issues in such situations? These questions are discussed in the 61^st edition of the “Media Azi” [Media Today] show by Olga Manole, a member of the Press Council; Cristian Jardan, Director of Unimedia portal; and Anastasia Nani, host of this edition. The 62^nd edition referred to the need to improve media.