IJC Launched the 2018 Moldovan Press Status Index

Influence of the political factor on the quality of journalism, maintaining misinformation and manipulation through the media, growing internal propaganda – these and other phenomena characterising the media in 2018, influenced the quality of the Moldovan Press Status, which did not evolve substantially compared to 2017. These conclusions were made by the authors of ‘2018 Moldovan Press Status Index (MPSI)’ Annual Report, published by the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) on Thursday, 28 February 2019.

The document explains what was the most vulnerable segment in the press development in 2018, according to the experts; why the legal framework regulating the media activity revealed a critical situation, although some of the important relevant draft laws were developed; what factors led to a critical situation in the professional environment, etc.

The report is structured in chapters corresponding to the seven indicators of the MPSI methodology: the legal framework regulating the media activity; political context; economic environment; professional environment; quality of journalism; information security from a media perspective; security of journalists.

Besides the mathematical results of the media situation assessment, each chapter contains a brief chronology of relevant events occurred in 2018 and a generalisation about experts’ arguments for the score they granted.
This is the third consecutive year when IJC develops such an broad document using the same methodology which provides a diagnosis for the media as a whole and for each index separately. At the same time, analyzing data gathered during the three years, we can make conclusions on certain developments or involutions in this respect.  Such approach provides a broad image and allows us to see the media progress over time.
 
Media expert Ion Bunduchi, the author of the study, drew it up together with a number of competent people, including journalists, media managers, legal experts, representatives of civil society. At the end of the report, the author proposed a number of recommendations able to improve the media situation. The report also has several annexes explaining the methodology and how it was applied in calculating the indexes.
 
The report was drawn up under the ‘Media Enabling Democracy, Inclusion and Accountability in Moldova’ (MEDIA-M) Project, carried out by IJC and Internews and funded by USAID.