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The third IJC monitoring report during the electoral campaign: Six TV stations massively or slightly favored some candidates

29 June 2021
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La CJI
In the third week of monitoring ten TV stations during the campaign for the early parliamentary elections of July 11, the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) found that two of them massively favored the Electoral Bloc of Communists and Socialists (BECS) and disfavored the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS), one station presented the Șor Party in positive light, and three stations slightly favored BECS. The election-themed materials of other providers were mostly fair and impartial, and protagonists in them appeared in neutral light. These are some of the data from the new monitoring report, released by the IJC on Tuesday, June 29.

Between June 18 and 24, the 10 television stations monitored during the electoral campaign for the July 11 parliamentary elections showed the following trends:
 

  • The public television Moldova 1 provided access to news to the majority of electoral competitors, presenting them in a neutral manner, without clearly favoring or disfavoring any of them. The selection of topics and manner of coverage suggested a slight favoring of the Electoral Bloc of Communists and Socialists (BECS), which had the most appearances, including some in positive light. Election-themed materials were fair and impartial, but sources were not quite diverse. Conflicting news stories were mostly balanced, while the gender balance of sources was not ensured.

 

  • The television stations NTV Moldova and Primul în Moldova showed a biased and partisan behavior towards BECS, which benefited from the most airtime for interventions, while the tone of coverage was positive and neutral. The Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) was mostly disfavored, having more mentions than citations in the news, as well as President Maia Sandu. These stations provided access to a relatively small number of electoral competitors, with an evident lack of pluralism of opinions. Most of the controversial news stories were unbalanced, and there were some violations in the use of images and language. The gender balance was tilted towards male sources.

 

  • Private television stations Jurnal TV, Pro TV, TV8, and RTR Moldova covered the electoral campaign in a fair and impartial manner, providing access to news to the majority of electoral competitors. The tone of coverage of electoral competitors was mostly neutral. A large part of news stories was impartial and separated facts from opinions, and controversial news stories ensured the balance of opinions in most cases. Materials were unbalanced in terms of gender equality.

 

  • Prime TV and Publika TV mostly provided impartial information about the campaign for the early parliamentary elections, approaching the majority of electoral candidates in a neutral manner. From the perspective of selection of topics and approach, the station gave priority to BECS representatives, who had the most interventions, including some in positive light. Most of the news stories were based on only one source. The stations did not ensure the gender balance of sources/protagonists.

 

  • The private TV station TV6 offered access to news to less than half of the electoral competitors, treating them in an impartial manner. An exception was PP Șor, which was favored by greater frequency and airtime given to interventions and by positive tone. Sources were not sufficiently diverse, and some conflicting news stories were unbalanced or partially balanced. The station ensured relative gender balance, but men prevailed.

The IJC recommends broadcasters to use monitoring reports as tools for self-regulation and to eliminate deficiencies, so that their activities could be in line with legal requirements and with the Journalist’s Code of Conduct. “We have seen some changes over the past week, and I’d like to believe that they are to some extent due to our reports, too. Over the next week, we shall see if things don’t get worse, given that slight favoring through selection of topics and the number of materials about certain competitors is on the agenda,” said the IJC Director Nadine Gogu at the conference presenting the report.

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.