Media Azi Cartoon. War and “Peace” on Small Screens in the Republic of Moldova

The audience of the newscasts of NTV Moldova, Primul in Moldova, and Accent TV channels does not get enough information about the war in Ukraine, as an analysis recently published on the Mediacritica portal of the Independent Journalism Center demonstrates. The omission technique the newsrooms of these TV channels apply in the case of the war in Ukraine was described by Liliana Vitu, President of the Broadcasting Council, as “the tactic of the ostrich hiding its head in the sand.” Media researchers emphasize that one of the functions of the journalist is to provide information about events of public interest, and a war “within spitting distance” is exactly such an event. Maybe “the tactic of the ostrich hiding its head in the sand” was adopted by these channels in order to survive in the conditions when the state tightens control over broadcast contents? We do not know what this “tactic” conceals, especially since the three institutions do not provide any explanations to their viewers. It is anyone’s guess…