The election campaign prior to the early mayoral elections witnessed serious deontological violations and manipulations committed by media outlets in Moldova. The mingling of facts and opinions was the most frequent deviation. This was followed by the generalization, truncation of statements and lack of the right to reply. The findings were included in the quarterly monitoring repot “Elements of propaganda, information manipulation and violation of the journalistic deontological norms in the national media landscape” that was presented by the Independent Journalism Center (IJC).
In April-June, there were monitored 12 media outlets: the TV channels Publika, Prime, Canal 2, Canal 3, Moldova 1, Jurnal, Accent, NTV, RTR and the portals noi.md, sputnik.md and deschide.md. The monitored subjects were: conviction of ex-MP Kiril Luchinski, May 1 protests mounted by the Party of Socialists, May 9 – Victory Day or Europe Day?, march “Without Fear”, mayoral runoffs in Chisinau municipality, and protest against the invalidation of the election of Andrei Nastase as mayor.
IJC expert Victor Gotisan, in a news conference at IPN, said Publika, Prime, Canal 2 and Canal 3 favored the Democratic Party and the representatives of this party. These deviated from the professional ethical norms using such manipulation techniques as labeling, truncation of opinions and statements, non-provision of the right to reply or the “national salvation technique”.
Accent TV, NTV and sputnik.md favored the President of Moldova Igor Dodon, the Party of Socialists and the Socialist candidate for mayor. In many cases, these media outlets misinformed the public by providing false information, made reference to sources that cannot be verified and abused the “internal and external enemy technique”.
Jurnal TV politicized in parts particular subjects, favoring the Party “Platform Dignity and Truth” and politicians Andrei Nastase and Maia Sandu and disfavoring other parties. A number of events and subjects were covered so as to disfavor the Democratic Party and its representatives, being accentuated information that put these in a negative light.
Most of the news items on the public TV channel Moldova 1 were presented neutrally and equidistantly, but some of the news articles were produced by the model of Prime, Canal 2 and Canal 3. The mixture of facts and opinions was the main violation identified here.
The portal deschide.md often used irony in its news articles and the priority information technique. Sputnik.md frequently used labeling and the internal enemy technique, while noi.md didn’t ensure the right to reply in several cases and used the priority information technique.
The IJC recommends the Broadcasting Coordination Council to examine the situation and monitor the TV channels that broadcast manipulating information so as to identify violations and impose penalties. The media consumers are recommended to inform themselves from several media sources so as to avoid obtaining mistaken and manipulating information.
