Media outlets in Moldova are invited to participate in a contest for the 2018 Journalism Ethics Award offered by the Moldovan Press Council. The award will be offered after an evaluation process involving the public and a group of experts, IPN reports.

The Press Council said in a communique the contest will take place in four stages, with the first being to propose participants. From August 13 to September 10, media outlets can propose themselves, or they can be proposed by the public or a group of experts created by the Press Council for this purpose. Candidates can be proposed by mail, by e-mail or by submitted an online form on www.mediaforum.md. The Press Council will then examine the submissions and will publish the list of the eligible candidates.

The second stage, taking place from September 15 to November 15, will involve members of the public awarding points to the pre-selected candidates listed online at www.mediaforum.md. There will be bonuses awarded, such as if a candidate outlet has signed the Deontology Code, as well as penalties, depending on the number of confirmed complaints submitted to the Press Council against the respective candidate.

During the third stage, until December 1, the Press Councill will aggregate the scores awarded by the public, the expert group, and the Press Council members, and will announce the top three outlets.

During the final stage, the Press Council will hold a closed meeting to decide whether or not to offer the Award this year.

The Award was introduced in 2015 with the aim to promote high standards and good practices in journalism. The previous awardees are the Radio Free Europe’s Moldovan Service (2015), the anticorruptuion news portal Anticoruptie.md (2016) and the weekly Ziarul de Gardă (2017).