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Experts Nadine Gogu, Executive Director of the Independent Journalism Center (IJC), and Petru Macovei, Executive Director of the AIP, who coordinated the work on this report, found that the five channels continued presenting unilateral, propagandistic, and manipulative information. At the same time, they identified several methods of manipulation, including: selective and unbalanced presentation of facts; interpretation of source statements or selective quoting of sources; labeling; presentation of opinions (including those of reporters) as facts; presentation of information from one source; etc.
For example: Pervyi Kanal delivered in its news such massages as “US actions in Syria violate international law and damage the fight against terrorism”; “Ukrainian law enforcement is not professional and cannot guarantee safety for the people”; “Russia is a savior for Syria.” Referring to talk-shows, Nadine Gogu noted that they lacked analytical elements and that pluralism of opinions is mostly simulated by inviting experts that support one point of view. Also, the hosts behaved aggressively, and if people with opinions other than pro-Russian were invited to the studio, it was done “just to be able to say that they invite everyone and give them the microphone, while in fact they would not let those people express their points of view.”
The same situation was noticed on other monitored TV channels. According to Petru Macovei, newscasts on Russian televisions retransmitted in Moldova, with the exception of STS, can be described as “battlefield status reports.” They use military narrative and terminology, everywhere there are stories about the army, army readiness, war. “The newscasts and editorial policies of Russian televisions are aimed at psychological preparation of the population for a military disaster,” Petru Macovei said.
Maria Ciobanu, MP representing the Liberal Democratic Party and member of the Parliamentary Commission for the Media, noted that this topic is very relevant and suggested the final report to be discussed within the parliamentary commission she represents, so as to analyze and find solutions to fight these phenomena. “Some politicians constantly threaten Moldova with Russian tanks, while in fact, these televisions are the actual ‘Russian tanks’,” she underlined.
According to BCC member Artur Cozma, the BCC cannot intervene in such cases, since “the notion of propaganda is absent in the national legislation.”
The final report will be sent for examination to the Parliament of Moldova, the BCC, the Information and Security Service and to other authorities responsible for the media and security.
