During the last week of the campaign prior to the first round of the June 14 local elections, the broadcasters were generally more impartial and covered the electoral events more equidistantly than during the first weeks of the campaign. In its June 23 meeting, the Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) approved the third monitoring report covering the period between June 7 and 14, IPN reports.

Head of the TV Monitoring Division Elena Crasmaru said the monitored TV channels in the period broadcast 342 materials centering on political themes, with “Accent TV” transmitting 58 such materials, “Pro TV” – 41, while “Publika TV” - 29. The channels covered the activities of 17 candidates who ran for the mayoralty of Chisinau. The Liberal Party’s candidate Dorin Chirtoaca, the Liberal Democratic Party’s candidate Serafim Urechean, the candidate of the Party of Law and Justice Marcel Darie and the Democratic Party’s candidate Monica Babuc appeared on TV most often.

BCC chairman Dinu Ciocan said the situation regarding the covering of the electoral events improved towards the end of the election campaign, but some of the broadcasters favored particular contestants by presenting them mainly in a positive light or by allocating more airtime to them.

Council member Mariana Onceanu-Hadarca said the report shows some of the TV channels indeed tend to be impartial in covering the election campaign and the intensity by which some of the election runners were favored or presented in disadvantageous conditions deceased significantly.

BCC member Olga Gututui noted that the Council should be tougher as the favoring by broadcasters of election runners could lead to the appearance of a precedent. Special attention should be devoted to the hidden publicity, when a contestant is presented without showing his status of election runner and without including the relevant materials in the elections division.

The Council is to present a report centering on the main news programs of the 13 TV channels monitored.