TRAINING TO THE MOLDOVAN MEDIA REGULATOR (CA) BY MEMO 98 PRIOR TO THE ELECTION 2020

The 1 November presidential election in Moldova will be the second direct presidential vote since 2016 (between 2000 and 2016 the president was elected by the parliament). By law, the president is elected for a four-year term in a single nationwide constituency. A series of online training seminars for the staff of the Coordinating Council of the Audiovisual (CA), the regulatory authority of the Republic of Moldova, on international standards related to media monitoring during elections and on how to apply in their daily work the CA’s revised media monitoring methodology, were held on 29-30 September. During these workshops, participants were trained on how to monitor political and electoral coverage, debates and talk-shows, and advertising in accordance with the revised media monitoring methodology and aligned to the main principles of pluralism.

The training also offered participants the opportunity to share with MEMO 98 experts, Rasťo Kužel and Marek Mračka, their main challenges encountered during previous elections, as well as the foreseen challenges for the upcoming presidential election scheduled for November 1^st, 2020. The experts provided online training to CA on the use of the revised media monitoring methodology (revised by Rasťo Kužel in 2018 and initially prepared by Marek Mračka and Richard Carver in 2010).

Moreover, the workshops facilitated the sharing of good practices and an in-depth understanding of the monitoring practices and practical examples from other countries with similar political and electoral profiles as Moldova. Reflecting on the opportunity of fostering their media monitoring capacities, Victoria Cecan, Chief of the Audiovisual Council TV Monitoring Department, noted that “our partnership with the Council of Europe Office in Moldova has a long and impactful history, and we are always grateful for the opportunity to improve our professional capacities, especially in the context of the upcoming electoral period.”

The training was supported by the Council of Europe in the framework of its program “Promoting European standards in the Audio-visual regulation in the Republic of Moldova”.