Moldovan media watchdog analyses local elections campaign

18:59 | 10.07.2015 Category: Social

Chisinau, 10 July /MOLDPRES/ - The Broadcasting Coordinating Council examined the general report monitoring the main bulletins of 13 television channels in terms of compliance with the Regulation on mass media coverage of the local elections campaign, in the first round of elections (9 May – 14 June) and the runoff (16 - 28 June 2015) at a meeting today.

According to the report, the monitored TV stations broadcasted a total of 1,869 materials covering political figures between 9 May and 14 June. Most political and electoral topics were shown on Accent TV, PRO TV Chisinau and Moldova-1 television stations.

At the same time, 22 political parties and one electoral bloc were advertised. The ruling parties appeared in 25.1 per cent of the respective TV content. The non-parliamentary and opposition represented 69.7 per cent of the total political subjects reflected in the newscasts of the monitored TV stations.

A quantitative analysis of the four monitoring reports conducted by the Broadcasting Coordinating Council showed that some radio broadcasters maintained their tendency to be less impartial and gave priority to a certain political party or candidate, but the degree and intensity with which some parties or electoral candidates were favoured or disfavoured declined significantly. Thus, a slight improvement in terms of covering the electoral campaign was noted in the last week before the first round of elections.

Referring to the report, Broadcasting Coordinating Council Chairman Dinu Ciocan said that 15 penalties for breaching the Regulation on electoral coverage were imposed. "Some TV stations that were sanctioned attacked the watchdog’s decisions in court. The Broadcasting Coordinating Council’s sanctions should be tougher. In this respect, we need to make changes to the Broadcasting Code, "noted the chairman.

Currently the Broadcasting Code provides the following sanctions: a public warning or a fine between 1,800 and 5,400 lei. In extremely serious cases, the Broadcasting Coordinating Council may suspend the broadcasting license.

(Reporter N. Roibu, Editor M. Jantovan)

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