The Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) Friday imposed the highest fine of 5,400 lei on the TV channel NIT for not respecting the principles of impartiality and plurality in its news programs, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the Council's report on how the broadcasters covered the election campaign in their news programs during May 12-20, NIT violated the Broadcasting Code as it favored the Communist Party in its news reports, while the journalists commented on the events in their materials. The decision to penalize NIT was taken by the vote of six members of seven attending the meeting . Corneliu Mihalache abstained from voting. “It is obvious that the BCC uses double standards. The channel was penalized by order. This report is generalized and does not indicate those who should be penalized indeed. It is sterile as it focuses only on one broadcaster,” said Corneliu Mihalache. “Every TV channel has the right to criticize, but the broadcasters must observe the Broadcasting Code,” said the Council's head Marian Pocaznoi. In the same meeting, the BCC warned the channels Jurnal TV and Publika TV for alloting airtime to only four of the 14 candidates running for the mayoralty of Chisinau. The Liberal Party's candidate Dorin Chirtoaca enjoyed the largest amount of airtime on both of the channels. It was also suggested warning the public TV channel Moldova 1, but the proposal could not garner the necessary number of votes. The monitoring report covered eight TV channels - Moldova 1, Publika TV, Jurnal TV, Prime, N4, Euro TV Chisinau, and TV7. Under a complaint filed to the BCC, the local TV channel “Eni Ai” in Comrat was warned for broadcasting a program where current mayor Nicolai Dudoglo, who is running for a new term in office, presented an activity report during half an hour. The channel's director Valery Lazarev admitted that they committed a mistake, but explained that he was abroad and the employees considered that Nicolae Dudoglo's report was not related to the election campaign.