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Media Monitoring during the Elections: Vlad Plahotniuc can be seen most often on TV, and Ilan Sor ‘makes headlines in the online press’

13 February 2019
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The Democratic Party enjoys the largest media coverage in terms of the frequency of TV appearances, and politician Ilan Sor — on the Internet. These observations were included in the third Report on Monitoring the Media Behavior during the Election Period for the 2019 Parliamentary elections (1-8 February). The report was presented on Wednesday, 13 February, by representatives of the media organisations - the independent Journalism Center (IJC) and Association of Independent Press (AIP).

The report noted that according to the frequency and duration of recorded and live appearances on the news, shows and debates, the most featured were Democratic Party (PD) - 478 times; Party of Socialists (PSRM) - 282 times; ‘ACUM’ Electoral Bloc - 227 times; ‘Sor’ Political Party - 192 times, and Liberal Party (LP) - 103 times.
The following candidates enjoyed the largest coverage in single-member constituencies: Vladimir Plahotniuc (affiliated with PDM) - 48 times, Andrei Nastase (affiliated with ‘ACUM’ Bloc) - 45 times; Maia Sandu (affiliated with ‘ACUM’ Bloc) - 28 times; Calin Vieru (independent) - 25 times and Constantin Tutu (affiliated with PDM) - 19 times.
Among the state authorities, President Dodon and representatives of Presidency rank the first, both in terms of the frequency of appearances and duration of live appearances.
As for the tone used to reflect election contestant, the following election candidates in the national constituency were mainly presented on a potivie note: PDM, followed by PSRM and ‘Sor’ Political Party. Similarly, the electoral stakeholders in the single-member constituencies affiliated with the said parties were featured in the largest number of positive materials.

At the same time, PDM and the ‘ACUM’ Bloc appeared in the most negative materials. In single-member constituencies, there were many cases of using a negative tone when speaking about candidates affiliated with ‘ACUM’ Bloc. Representatives of the state institutions, especially Presidency, were primarily presented on a positive note, representatives of the Parliament and Government - mainly on a neutral, but also on positive notes.
Contestants from single-member constituencies, who most frequently appeared in positive materials, were: Vladimir Plahotniuc (affiliated with PDM), followed by Ilan Sor (affiliated with ‘Sor’ Political Party), but mostly negatively - Andrei Nastase and Maia Sandu (affiliated with ‘ACUM’ Electoral Bloc).

According to IJC Executive Director Nadine Gogu, there is little difference between the situations revealed in the last and the first monitoring reports. The only change was at Moldova 1 public TV channel, which in most cases had a neutral tone for all and there were fewer materials presenting the protagonists positively. ‘As for the rest, the same situation: there are two channels that support massively an election candidate in the national and single-member constituencies and other four channels supporting another candidate in the national constituency’ Nadine Gogu stated.
Petru Macovei, Executive Director of AIP - organisation that monitors online and print media, noticed the tendency of some portals to selectively address the facts, favouring or disfavouring certain election contestants. The expert said that out of the 16 monitored media outlets, 6 portals could be presented as an example of balanced presentation of contestants, while other six ‘are very clearly politically charged’. ‘The speeches became tougher in relation to the opponents. Visibility of some candidates depending on the ongoing events also changed. As we have presented, Ilan Sor and the party he represents made headlines in the online press’, Petru Macovei told.

Note that media organisations monitor 12 TV stations, 15 online portals and a newspaper. These are: Moldova 1, GRT, Prime TV, Canal 2, Canal 3, Publika TV, Jurnal TV, NTV Moldova, Pro TV Chisinau, TV8, Accent TV, TV Centrală; online portals – Agora.md, Aif.md, Deschide.md, Diez.md, Esp.md, Gagauzinfo.md, Kp.md, Moldova.org, Newsmaker.md, Noi.md, Realitatea.md, Sputnik.md, Timpul.md, Unimedia.info, Zdg.md and Jurnal de Chișinău newspaper.