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The second IJC report during the electoral campaign: Four of the 10 television stations covered the electoral campaign in a correct and impartial manner

23 June 2021
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La CJI
Four of the 10 monitored television stations (Moldova 1, Jurnal TV, Pro TV, and TV8) covered the campaign for the early parliamentary elections of July 11, 2021 in a correct and impartial manner. Two other stations – NTV Moldova and Primul în Moldova – massively favored the Electoral Bloc of Communists and Socialists (BECS), while Prime TV and RTR Moldova slightly favored PP Șor. TV6 favored PP Șor and slightly disfavored the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS), while Publika TV slightly favored BECS and disfavored PAS. These are the conclusions of the second report on media monitoring during the electoral campaign, released by the IJC on Monday, June 21.
 
Between June 11 and 17, the 10 television stations monitored during the electoral campaign for the July 11 presidential elections showed the following trends:
 
  • The public television station Moldova 1 covered the electoral activities in a correct and impartial manner, offering airtime to the majority of electoral competitors in the news. There was no noticeable favoring or disfavoring of any candidate in the elections. Electoral topics were presented in a neutral manner, but with only one source of information per topic. As for controversial news stories, Moldova 1 ensured the balance of sources in almost all of them. In terms of gender equality among sources, Moldova 1 cited more men than women.
 
  • The private stations Jurnal TV, Pro TV, and TV8 offered airtime to the majority of the candidates registered for elections, without obviously favoring or disfavoring any electoral competitor. All three stations covered the information and events related to the electoral campaign or candidates mostly in a correct and impartial manner. Controversial topics in the vast majority of cases were balanced, and the right to reply in them was ensured. The sources were unbalanced in terms of gender, with a greater presence of male sources.
 
  • The private station RTR Moldova provided access to news for most of the electoral candidates and, for the most part, covered the activities carried out by the representatives of the political parties registered for elections in a correct manner, without violations of ethical standards. However, during the reporting period, the station slightly favored PP Șor by airing two biased reports, outside the section dedicated to elections, highlighting the achievements of PP Șor representatives in Orhei. RTR Moldova did not ensure the gender balance of sources/protagonists in the monitored newscasts.
 
  • NTV Moldova and Primul în Moldova had a biased behavior in relation to the Electoral Bloc of Communists and Socialists, which was massively favored both by the frequency and airtime allocated to direct and indirect interventions and by approach and tone of coverage. At the same time, the Action and Solidarity Party and President Maia Sandu were mostly presented in a negative tone, often being the protagonists of accusatory materials. The other competitors were presented mostly in a neutral tone. Many of election-themed materials were presented in a biased manner, and controversial news stories were in many cases unbalanced or partially balanced. Both stations broadcast news containing discriminatory language, able to incite intolerance towards the LGBT community. From the perspective of gender balance, NTV Moldova provided practically equal access to male and female protagonists/sources, while Primul în Moldova gave priority to male sources.
 
  • Publika TV covered the electoral campaign in a relatively balanced way. Most of its news stories were impartial, separated facts from opinions, and provided access to some of the electoral competitors. Controversial materials presented the opinions of all sides concerned in the vast majority of cases. The gender balance in the news was not ensured. Judging by the frequency and airtime allocated, but also by the approach to issues, we found that the Electoral Bloc of Communists and Socialists was favored and the Action and Solidarity Party was disfavored. The other competitors in the reporting period most often appeared in neutral light.
 
  • Prime TV had a balanced behavior, and the activities carried out by electoral competitors were covered in an impartial manner. The news stories were objective, correct, without any problems in terms of separating facts from opinions or political partisanship. Ethics and deontology were respected in most cases. From the perspective of the frequency and context of appearance of electoral actors, there was no obvious favoring of any competitors, except for PP Șor, which had a large volume of interventions, and the tone of its coverage was positive in three cases. From the perspective of ensuring gender equality, the station gave priority to male sources/protagonists.
 
  • TV6 covered the activity of the candidates in the elections in a correct and impartial manner, with the exception of PP Șor, which was obviously favored by several positive news stories, while PAS and President Maia Sandu were disfavored by accusatory news stories based on either the statements of an electoral competitor, or on other public information. The sources cited/mentioned were not sufficiently diverse, and some of the conflict-themed news stories were unbalanced. The gender balance was tilted towards male sources. 
Nadine Gogu, the executive director of the IJC, mentioned at the launch of the second monitoring report that this activity is very important in the sense that it reminds media outlets that they should take into account the sector-specific deontological standards and regulations. “Media outlets must provide equal access to all candidates and respect the right of citizens to full, objective, and truthful information,” said Nadine Gogu.
 
The executive director of the IJC specified that after the launch of the first monitoring report, it was sent to the Broadcasting Council so that the violations found at some TV stations in the process of covering the electoral campaign between June 1 and 10 could be analyzed in public session.
 
The IJC recommends journalists to take into account the results and recommendations of the monitoring in order to allow citizens to be informed in a correct and impartial manner.
 
By monitoring the media, the IJC aimed to inform the public about the media behavior during the electoral campaign and the access of electoral competitors to the media, as well as to notify the regulators about the trends that might affect the performance of the media or compromise their ability to provide the public with truthful, impartial, and pluralistic information.
 
Overall, 10 broadcasters were subjected to monitoring: Moldova 1, Prime TV, Publika TV, Jurnal TV, RTR Moldova, NTV Moldova, Primul în Moldova, Pro TV, TV8, and TV6. The stations were selected according to the following criteria: audience/impact (national, regional), type of media (audiovisual), form of ownership (public, private), and language of broadcasting (Romanian, Russian).
 
This report has been prepared with the financial support of the Office of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Moldova.