Chisinau, May 23 (Infotag). The Electronic Media Association (APEL) believes the Teleradio-Moldova public service broadcaster lacks professionalism. The Association arrived at that conclusion after a monitoring of TRM programs had been carried out throughout April.

APEL expert Catalina Scobioala told a news conference in Infotag today that, for instance, the national television and radio broadcasters – Moldova-1 channel and the Radio Moldova station – provide overwhelmingly conflict-free news obtained from a single source only.

“In their news programs, 80% are news from or about Chisinau, and over 75% personalities mentioned in them are the representatives of the country’s leadership and the ruling Communist Party. More than 84% news broadcast in April were about the parliamentary parties who voted for President Voronin’s re-election on April 4. News about an “active opposition” are scarce, if any. The head of state, Prime Minister and Parliament Chairman are the undisputable trio of champions enjoying the widest coverage by the national television and radio”, Scobioala said.

The APEL experts stressed that, as a rule, central television and radio journalists do not use opposite sources of information, and never verify the information they receive from the above-mentioned only source. “Teleradio-Moldova company thus violates and ignores its status of a public service broadcaster”, she said.

The Association indicated that Teleradio-Moldova attaches little attention to issues pertaining to eradication of poverty, to children’s problems, or to the combat against corruption.

Scobioala said that broadcasting for children constitutes only 2% of Radio Moldova’s total work volume, anti-corruption topics – 1.09%, and poverty reduction issues were not touched on in radio programs at all. On Moldova-1 TV channel, corruption problems received 4.2 percent of the total airtime, programs for children – 1.3 percent, and anti-poverty programs 0.33 percent.

The Electronic Media Association has been monitoring Teleradio-Moldova’s programs since January 2005, to accomplish the project next month.