Drama of the news sites

Vitalie COJOCARI
journalist, blogger

In 2005, the people started to massively connect to the Internet, as it became a very important source of information. Editorial offices in Moldova started improving their sites. However, things were changing too slowly. In September 2005, Unimedia was launched, which would give the necessary stimulus for the quick development of the online journalism in Chisinau.

When they realized that others have success due to the journalistic product they created, editorial offices hired more staff to work on sites, and started to focus more on the online journalism.  Protv.md, Publika.md, Jurnal.md, Timpul.md, Zdg.md, Europaliber.org, and Kp.md solved their problem of publishing information in real time. In addition, they had a best card: their brand and, of course, credibility. People trust news sites when they know these are the virtual variants of a newspaper or a TV channel.

Online journalism boom led to an inflation of non-TV or newspaper websites. Deschide.md, Independent.md, Hotnews.md, Vesti.md, Stirilocale.md are just some of the information sites. But most of the news sites have a problem, which does not necessarily refer to the sites I have mentioned. It is connected to the essence of journalism, as we were taught at the university – CREDIBILITY. Credibility is the supreme guarantee that the editorial office offers a product that is not altered or expired.

The news sites raising importance is proved by their recent involvement in large scandals. For example, Deschide.md – Vadim Ungureanu, one of the journalists working for this site was accused by the police on June 20, 2014 by the police of having reportedly tried to blackmail Dan Chirita, chief of the Monitoring Centre of the General Police Inspectorate. Deschide.md announced then it was in the middle of a denigration campaign, as their journalists found some chief police officers out and became thorns in their flesh. The story is quite complicated, so, we are all waiting for a ruling of the court.

The boom of the virtual information environment led to many discussions and suggestions that a NAC (National anticorruption centre) of the internet entities was created. I doubt it would work and I think it would destroy the spirit of democracy in the internet.

In this context, selling the site Unimedia is crucial for the online journalism in the Republic of Moldova. Unfortunately, it was sold in an untrasparent manner. While in civilized countries, a site being bought is communicated to the smallest detail, in Moldova we cannot but guess. In my opinion, the actual price is certainly above one million euro. Whoever the buyer was, he or she did not buy a site or “the Uni-team” – the new owner bought the CREDIBILITY of the Unimedia brand. The important question no one has yet clearly answered is who the actual buyer in this transaction is.  For, the site credibility is now hanging on a thread. If until recently news sites wanted to prove they also count in the media, now they have another drama and fight to start. They are to prove they are CREDIBLE and they can resist the economic pressures put by politicians. In other words, as I said: trust takes years to build, seconds to break, even online.
 
 

The article was published within the Advocacy Campaigns Aimed at Improving Transparency of Media Ownership, Access to Information and promotion of EU values  and integration project, implemented by the IJC, which is, in its turn, part of the Moldova Partnerships for Sustainable Civil Society project, implemented by FHI 360.
 
This article is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The content are the responsibility of author and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.