Media manipulation techniques continue to be used in the post-election period. Among the most broadly used techniques is the omission, when journalists avoid relating events or details that disadvantage the media outlet owners or avoid information that can advantage their opponents. The conclusion was formulated in the fourth monitoring report that covered 12 media outlets. The report entitled “Elements of propaganda, information manipulation and violation of the journalist’s deontological norms in the national media space” was compiled by the Independent Journalism Center and covers the period between December 1, 2016 and February 1, 2017.
The Center’s executive director Nadine Gogu, in a news conference at IPN, said the tendencies to violate the deontological norms identified in the previous monitoring periods persisted, but their intensity was smaller. This is due to the fact that it is a post-electoral period and the politicians’ interest in the mass media decreased.
“We cannot say that we have a very good report and that all the monitored media outlets performed well. Most of the times the journalists of the monitored TV channels and online media outlets resorted to omission. Even if there were events of major public interest, particular details about these were omitted and the public opinion was thus manipulated. Regrettably, the journalists continue to serve the interests of employers or politicians, not of the general public,” stated Nadine Gogu, noting that in some of the cases this is done because the journalists do not know the deontological norms. In this connection, Gogu called on the media outlet managers to instruct the journalists in this regard.
Viorica Zaharia, media expert who produced the monitoring report, said most of the news articles broadcast by the mass media tended to present some of the individuals in an exclusively positive light and to disadvantage others. Elements of information manipulation were mainly identified in the news items produced by Publika TV, Prime TV, and Accent TV and less on the portals sputnik.md, deschide.md, pan.md and RTR.
The expert called on the journalists to start from a neutral position when they write news articles so as correctly present the situation and to refrain from inflating politicians’ merits by different techniques. The media consumers are urged to inform themselves from a number of sources and to ignore those that manipulate.
