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According to the BC monitoring report, although Prime, Publika TV, Canal 2, Canal 3, Accent TV, NTV Moldova, Orhei TV and Central Television channels were sanctioned by public warning during the previous BC meeting, they again violated the legal provisions on the election campaign coverage. They were fined with MDL 5,000 for repeated deviations. The BC member Olga Gututui proposed harsher fines of MDL 10,000, except for Canal 2 and Canal 3. In her opinion, they had a more appropriate behavior compared to the previous period. However, the other BC members rejected her proposal.
Olga Gututui also said that PRO TV Chisinau and TV8 again showed a good example, and TV8 presented more candidates in the single-member constituencies than Moldova 1 public TV channel.
The BC member Ludmila Viziru said that the second monitoring report shown that the overall number of neutral news grew between 4 and 13 February.
The BC member Veronica Cojocaru added, in her turn, that some channels well presented in the report on newscasts monitoring, however, did not always observe the same principles in their TV programs.
Note that according to media experts, the fines imposed by the BC do not have the appropriate impact on the sanctioned broadcasting outlets. At the press conference launching the Report on Monitoring the Media Behavior during the Election Period, developed by the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) and Association of Independent Press (AIP), Nadine Gogu, IJC Executive Director, argued that BC sanctions were late, being applied ‘practically in the last week of the election campaign’. IJC Executive Director notes that the big issue is that ‘some broadcasters did not take into account any legal provision, did what they knew they must do, and nothing happened’. In his turn, Petru Macovei, AIP Executive Director, said at the same press conference that BC should monitor the TV channels during the pre-election period as well, in order to timely sanction them.
BC monitors 13 TV channels in the current election campaign: Moldova 1, TV8, Prime, Publika TV, Canal 2, Canal 3, Accent TV, NTV Moldova, PRO TV Chisinau, Jurnal TV, RTR Moldova, Orhei TV and Central Television.
Also during the meeting of Thursday, 21 February, Jurnal TV was fined with MDL 5,000 for violating the broadcasting law during the ‘Cabinetul din Umbra’ show (The Room in the Shadow), attended by PPDA leader Andrei Nastase. BC was notified by the Democratic Party, which believed that the show had an electoral nature.
