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The IJC has monitored a total number of 12 media outlets: TV broadcasters – TV Moldova 1, Publika TV, Canal 2, Accent TV, NTV Moldova, Jurnal TV, TV8, PRO TV Chisinau; the online press – Noi.md, Sputnik.md, Kp.md, Unimedia.info. The Club was attended only by journalists from TV8 and Unimedia.info.
According to the author of the report, the media researcher Victor Gotisan, the main ethical violations were mixing of facts with opinions, failure to observe the right to reply, selective presentation of facts and statements, generalizations and labels. ‘In conclusion, all those 12 media outlets have neglected at least one ethical rule or used at least one manipulation technique.’ Speaking about trends, the expert believes that the phenomenon of manipulation will increase during the pre-election period and during the election campaign itself.
Taking advantage of the BC members' presence in the Discussion Club, the journalists wanted to find out what was the role of this institution in addressing the violations put down in the report. Diana Raileanu, from the Free Europe radio station, wondered how decisions were made by BC members when they have to sanction the broadcasters that violate the law. The civic activist Oleg Brega addressed another issue: ‘Almost all TV stations are involved in open partisanship both during the election campaign and pre-election periods. Why can’t you see the foundations of Plahotniuc and Dodon that are in all news including on public television, which even gave an award to Plahotniuc. I feel that we are wasting money on the BC’ said the civic activist.
The BC member Lidia Viziru said that lately the Council has been preoccupied with the statements of the broadcasters during the election campaign. At the same time, she pointed out that ‘journalists do not know how to read both the Electoral Code and the Regulation on the Coverage of the Election Campaign and can not apply these in the reports they create’.
The Executive Director of the Independent Journalism Center (IJC), Nadine Gogu attended the meeting as well. As regards the impact of the monitorings conducted by IJC, the expert reminded about the positive cases when some representatives of the monitored media outlets came to IJC to discuss the gaps identified in the report and subsequently changed their behaviour. Nadine Gogu pointed out that unlike the civil society, ‘the BC has another levers’ that could be applied to ‘penalise those who constantly violate the law’.
Lidia Viziru said that the BC does not have the necessary capacity to conduct long-term monitoring activities during several weeks or months. In this context, the IJC Director suggested the BC to cooperate with the civil society and to analyse civil society monitorings of media behaviour in order to apply the law to broadcasters depending on the abuses found. The BC representative agreed with such an approach but said that it would be necessary to adopt a regulation allowing the Council to impose sanctions on the basis of civil society reports.
The Independent Journalism Center will continue to monitor Moldovan media outlets selected on the basis of audience, language, coverage and type of ownership criteria to help the media outlets observe the ethical rules and promote quality journalism.
