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Journalist Lina Grau, moderator of the event, focused the discussion on two aspects of manipulation through mass media: internal and external manipulation.
According to special guests of the Press Club – media expert Ion Bunduchi, journalist Vitalie Calugareanu, Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) representative Cristina Mitu, and senior advisor in the parliamentary commission for mass media Serghei Cornetchi, – in the information age we have the possibility to receive information from several sources in order not to become victims of manipulation.
Media expert Ion Bunduchi said that the notion of manipulation has a different meaning according to the dictionary than the one used in the context of information, which appeared after 1990s. In his opinion, media consumers can be manipulated in two cases: “when we have lack of information and when we have excess of information.” Commenting on the situation in Moldova, the expert underlined that journalists often follow political agendas without doing their research. “And if we are not prepared, it is a very wide gate for manipulation. We shouldn’t allow mass media to become a resonator of manipulation,” he said.
BCC member Cristina Mitu said that when BCC monitoring finds cases of manipulation, the BCC cannot apply penalties, because the current Broadcasting Code does not contain such terms as propaganda or manipulation. In such cases, “the BCC tries to maneuver certain legislative provisions, such as those on ensuring pluralism of opinion, socio-political balance, accurate, objective, and neutral information, and thus we try to carry out our monitoring activities, although broadcasters have recently been using manipulation more and more often,” Cristina Mitu said. As for external propaganda, she reminded to participants that the BCC applied in 2015 maximum penalties to some broadcasters for violation of national laws, and the work of Rossia 24 television was stopped.
Further, senior advisor of the parliamentary commission for mass media Serghei Cornetchi added: “Unfortunately, the term of manipulation is absent not only in the Code, but also in all legislative initiatives. And 5 laws on modifying the Code have been adopted this year.”
On the other hand, journalist Vitalie Calugareanu finds that the lack of terms is not the biggest problem: “I believe that the serious problems that journalists are facing now stem from ones’ unwillingness to abide by the principles of the professional ethics’ code and others’ love for their bosses in considering it. Citizens need the regulating authority’s help to start filtering information.”
The new directive on broadcasting, which is currently being drafted by the European Union, was also discussed at the event. In this sense, experts said that the draft Broadcasting Code, which is currently the subject of hearings, will have to be modified. “If that EU directive is adopted, the draft code registered in the parliament in 2010 will become obsolete,” Serghei Cornetchi said, while Ion Bunduchi, who is one of the draft code’s authors, estimated that in such conditions “we will have to modify at least the first three chapters of the new Broadcasting Code.”
Participants in the event also spoke about such forms of manipulation as silence and lies. In this context, they mentioned the example of events of April 7, 2009, when some televisions did not broadcast scenes from the Great National Assembly Square, preferring to air entertainment shows. Participants in the meeting concluded that silence or hiding of some facts means manipulation of public opinion.
To fight manipulation, experts recommended the following methods that could be used by media consumers: developing critical thinking; using alternative sources of information, including European, with wide coverage; and declaring cases of manipulation found in the media to the Press Club or to media organizations concerned with compliance with professional ethical standards in journalism.
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The event was organized as part of “Advocacy campaigns for media ownership transparency, access to information, promotion of values and European integration” project implemented by the IJC. This Press Club has been possible due to the generous support of the American people offered through the U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Opinions presented here belong to authors and might not reflect the position of USAID of the U. S. Government.
