The Press Council of Moldova in 2015 will launch a national contest to confer the National Ethics and Professional Deontology Award on journalists. The award will be a novelty for Moldova and will be given based on monitoring and as a result of the validation by the Press Council of the score obtained by the contending media outlets. As the organizer, the Press Council can decide not to confer the award to any contender if it reaches the conclusion that the contending media outlets do not deserve it, IPN reports.
The regulations concerning the organization and holding of the contest were formulated by the Press Council and are to be adopted in one of the next meetings of the Council. Under them, the contest is open to all the media institutions of Moldova. The applications must be submitted to the Press Council. They will be examined during two weeks and then the list of participants will be published on the Press Council’s website.
The media outlets will be monitored during eight months to assess their professional behavior in accordance with the Journalist’s Deontological Code. In this period, the visitors of the Press Council’s website will be able to give grades to the contenders. The winner of the National Ethics and Professional Deontology Award will be designated in a closed meeting of the Press Council.
The regulations provide that the award can be withdrawn by the Press Council if it’s established that the laureates of the previous years violated the deontological norms and the provisions of the Deontological Code.
