MONITORING REPORT NO. 1 ON THE MEDIA (TV STATIONS) DURING THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
On October 2, 2020, the Independent Journalism Center (CJI) released its first monitoring report on the media during the election period and campaign for the presidential election of November 1, 2020.
From 14 through 28 of September 2020, CJI has monitored ten public and private media outlets with national and regional coverage in Romanian and Russian.
The first monitoring found that candidate Igor Dodon in the 2020 presidential election enjoyed massive coverage—mostly in positive contexts—on four out of ten monitored TV stations. On the other hand, three of the four TV stations presented many materials on the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) and the leader of this parliamentary group, Maia Sandu, most of which had negative connotations.
The public TV station Moldova 1 presented the presidential hopefuls in neutral tones, Igor Dodon being the only candidate presented positively. The TV station advantaged him through the multitude of news reports focusing on his presidential work and the positive tone of multiple materials—including about the government’s work—that made use of the transfer of image. Most materials presented on private TV stations Primul în Moldova, NTV Moldova, and Accent TV promoted the government, covering mostly subjects that involved its various representatives. Igor Dodon was the first among the registered presidential candidates who enjoyed massive coverage on these TV stations, with most apparitions and direct interventions, most of which in positive contexts. These stations also presented many materials about PAS and Maia Sandu, most of which had negative connotations.
Televiziunea Centrală presented representatives of the Șor Political Party (Șor PP) and implicitly the party’s candidate Violeta Ivanov mostly in a positive light and the other candidates and parties mainly in neutral tones. Prime TV and Publika TV covered presidential candidates relatively neutrally, and the tone of materials about state agencies was mainly neutral and occasionally positive. The coverage of political parties was neutral except the Șor PP, which had many positive reports on Prime TV.
Jurnal TV, Pro TV, and TV8 had a relatively balanced policy, without a clear trend to present state agencies, presidential candidates, and political parties in a positive light. A few of these actors received negative coverage.
By monitoring the media, CJI intended to inform the public about the behavior of the press during the election campaign and the access of election candidates to media coverage and to notify regulatory entities about the trends that could impact the performance of media outlets or compromise their capacity to offer trustworthy, detached, and pluralistic information.
CJI recommends the Broadcasters Council to use the monitoring reports to assess themselves and to see whether the monitored TV stations observed the right to full, objective, and trustworthy information. All told, the monitoring covered ten radio stations: Moldova 1, Prime TV, Publika TV, Jurnal TV, NTV Moldova, Primul în Moldova, Accent TV, Pro TV, TV8, and Televiziunea Centrală. The broadcasters were selected by the following criteria: audience/impact (national, regional), type of media (broadcasting), ownership form (public, private), broadcasting language (Romanian, Russian).
To read the full version of the first monitoring report on the media during the presidential campaign, please, click here http://media-azi.md/sites/default/files/Raport%20nr1%202020_prezidentiale.pdf.