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Thus, there have been monitored the main news releases on the “NTV Moldova” channel and “Accent TV” channel, in particular, the reports named: “The church attacked”, “Sandu - gay promoter” and “Sandu - hope of Syrian immigrants”, broadcasted on the “NTV Moldova” and a news item on the subject of “Syrian immigrants”, broadcasted on the “Accent TV”. As a result of the monitoring they found violation of Art. 6 par. (1) of the broadcasting Code, which stipulates: “The broadcaster is prohibited to broadcast programmes containing any form of incitement to hatred on grounds of race, religion, nationality, sex. It is prohibited to use sexist language and violent and degrading images of women and men.”
According to the BCC member, Mariana Onceanu-Hadirca, in the case of these materials both the Journalist Code of Ethics, and the Code of Conduct for Broadcasters have been breached, namely, Article 13: “The Broadcasters are obliged not to discriminate against any person because of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation or disability and not to incite to hatred and violence when reporting facts or expressing opinions”.
With regard to reporting about Syrian immigrants, where it has been said that the presidential candidate Maia Sandu would have been supported Syrian immigrants to arrive in our country, Mariana Onceanu-Hadarca said: “I insist that it is not only disinformation and promoted forgeries, but it is also incitement to hatred by the way material was edited, with regard to those interviews done by the alleged Syrians, they are edited on the pictures of violence, with miseries, taken from the European area, from those camps where they reside, just to cause and engender this fear, disapproval and intolerance to what is happening. There are clear exaggerations in this regard. I do not think we should endure this, because we risk to transform the broadcasting space in such open and very ugly wars.”
In the draft decision the BCC stipulates that through broadcasting this coverage “it has been suggested and promoted the idea that Syrian and Arab refugees are violent and pose an imminent danger for Moldova, causing, in this way, situations of phobia and intolerance in society towards this community”.
The BCC members voted unanimously to sanction with public warning the “NTV Moldova” channel and “Accent TV” channel.
The representatives of the two tv stations attending the meeting have not deemed the materials hateful and said that they did not see violations of the legislation in force in these cases. “The material with Mrs. Sandu was an editorial. We exposed the editor's opinion, I don't see incitement to hatred. In comparison with what the other TV channels did, we are small children”, explained the representative of the “NTV Moldova”. And the representative of the “Accent TV” claimed that the story with the Syrians would have been a neutral and balanced material, where “even the title has not been affirmative, having an interrogation mark at the end.”
At the request of the BCC member, Nicolae Damaschin, they voted to monitor, during 7 days, the general concept of the TV channel “NTV Moldova” in relation to the conditions for issuing broadcasting license.
As well at the meeting of February 10, the BCC extended the broadcasting license of the TV channel “Accent TV” for a period of 7 years. Olga Gututui and Mariana Onceanu-Hadarca voted against this decision, stating that “during the presidential election campaign the TV station did not respect its viewers”.
