The Press Council established that the portal Noi.md violated a number of provisions of the Journalist’s Deontological Code of Moldova by an informative-analytical article about the reform of the boarding schools in Moldova. The article was analyzed following a complaint filed by the director of CCF-Moldova Liliana Rotaru, who reported documentation shortcomings, tendentious and unilateral approaches, inexact citing, etc.
Liliana Rotaru explained that she gave an interview for the portal, but her statements were translated incorrectly and, in some cases, were placed in the text with tendentious interpretations. She also complained about the use of stigmatizing and discriminatory expressions by journalists. The director of CCF-Moldova specified that by spreading false information about deeds and evaluative judgments without sufficient justification, the author damaged her dignity and honor. She asked to exclude from the article a sentence that contains erroneous assumptions that harmed the organization’s image. The author of the article published by Noi.md suggested that CCF promotes de-institutionalization with the aim of favoring the adoption of Moldovan children abroad.
When it was asked by the Press Council to state its position on the made accusations, the portal’s administration published an article whereby it denies the objections of the complainer, one of the arguments being that the journalist introduced evaluative judgments in parts and this is allowed by the Law on the Freedom of Expression.
Press Council head Viorica Zaharia said the article was written tendentiously and contains serious documentation errors. She enumerated the Deontological Code provisions that were violated by the author, including the verification of information from a number of sources, expression of opinions based on evidence, presumption of innocence. “The Code obliges the journalists to ask for the opinion of all the relevant sources. In this case, there is a key source – the state, which is the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family and the Ministry of Education. As to the anonymous source used in the text, its presence is not justified and the extent to which the statements made by this deserve to be taken into account is not explained,” stated Viorica Zaharia.
By the decision of the Press Council adopted by a unanimous vote on January 31, the portal Noi.md was recommended to exclude from the text or edit the sentence that contains unfounded accusations. In the same meeting, the Press Council members examined a complaint concerning an investigation by the portal Rise.md. They found no deviations from the deontological norms in this case. Also, at the request of the director of the public TV channel Moldova 1, the Press Council analyzed a news item broadcast by this channel and issued a consultative notice to comply with the deontological norms and good practices of high quality journalism.