Media Managers Acknowledge: “It is quantity, rather than quality, which boosts sales”

The main violations of the Code of Ethics found by the Press Council, top journalistic materials that bring the audience, lack of revenue from advertising, and other problems faced by the media in Moldova were discussed at the round table “Employers vs. Employees: Ethical Means Unprofitable?”, organized by the Press Council (PC) on Thursday, May 18.

Opening the event, PC Chair Viorica Zaharia mentioned the most frequent violations notified to the Council. They include violation of human dignity, presumption of innocence, etc. “Some persons complained about the publication of tendentious materials containing unverified facts, hate speech, and labeling,” said Viorica Zaharia.

Media managers said that, unfortunately, “it is quantity rather than quality that boosts sales.” According to Dumitru Ciorici, co-founder of the Agora.md news portal, revenue from advertising is not generated by the number of views per material, because, as a rule, a portal can have only three-four materials per month with over 60 thousand views. And even if a portal posts banners or other promotional materials, they do not cover expenses related to salaries, rent, equipment, etc. In his opinion, poor economic situation in the media, along with poor professional education of journalists, leads to the violations about which consumers notify the PC.

The situation at Realitatea TV is the same. According to the director general of the “Realitatea” media group Dumitru Tira, the most readable are “non-serious” news, like horoscope, gossip, etc. He also pointed to lower prices offered by televisions for advertising than it was a few years ago, and for that reason the outlet cannot cover its monthly expenses. Referring to the violations of ethics, Dumitru Tira believes that the worst one is related to plagiarism.

Round table participants believe that grants and special projects could be a good solution to financial support for the media. Another option could be commercial materials, but outlets don’t have reporters specialized in such areas, and a large number of such articles may have a negative impact on the quality of journalistic products.

The internal regulations of every outlet were also discussed at the event. Cristina Arama from Diez.md news portal told how her outlet decided to cover the “Blue Whale” game. According to her, the team agreed not to write about this game, but instead about its antipode, the “Pink Whale,” in order to counterbalance the emotional state in social networks.

At the end of the event, Viorica Zaharia urged attendees to notify the PC about any problems in the journalistic community, so they could be discussed and solved.