Republic of Moldova:

Media Space

BDR Associates, a Hill and Knowlton Associate

The main features of the mass media in the R. of

Moldova

Mass media in Moldova is continuously developing and covering all types of media channels: TV,
radio, written (magazines, newspapers), press agencies and online

Lately, the increasing quality and role of the online mass media was noted, but mainly at Chisinau
level

The main language of publications is Romanian, but an important segment of the market is
occupied by the publications issued in Russian language and multilingual media channels;

The multilingual mass media:

Almost all main TV channels broadcast news in both Romanian and Russian.

Recently, trilingual media channels appeared: Romanian-Russian-English (mainly press

agencies and web portals).

The range of specialized mass media is not very large and it covers, mainly, the following areas:

Daily newspapers (the most developed);

Business / Economy: 2 magazines, Profit. Banci si Finante and Business Class, 2

newspapers: Logos Press and Economist, 1 press agency: InfoMarket;

Entertainment

Constructions & real estate

IT (at the beginning)

Others (accounting & audit, for children and youths)

The most developed media segments

Central mass media versus regional one:

Central media is much more developed than regional media

However, because of its low buying power, a significant portion of rural population prefers
the regional media

The most popular media categories among the general public (decreasing in importance):

TV & Radio

Online media (web portals, online TV, blogs). Online media started to be more popular
beginning with last year. A kind of launching in this respect belongs to Unimedia web portal,
which was launched in 2009.

Written (printed) press

Press agencies

The most popular mass media by area of operation

Economic & business

Newspapers: Logos Press, ECOnomist

Magazines:

Press agencies: Infomarket

Profit, Business Class

General interest

Newspapers:
Vedomosti

Timpul, Jurnal de Chisinau, Nezavisimaya Moldova, Moldavskie

Press agencies: Infotag, Info-Prim Neo

TV (news): Prime TV, PRO TV, TV7, Moldova1, Publika TV, Jurnal TV

Radio (news): Radio Moldova, Europa Libera, Vocea Basarabiei

Entertainment: Punkt, VIP Magazin, Aquarelle magazines; Komsomoliskaia Pravda newspaper

International mass media on Moldovan market

TV channels (with local programs)
From Romania:

PRO TV

Press agencies (subsidiaries)

AGERPRESS - Romania

NEWSIN Romania

RIA Novosti Russia (local name Novosti-Moldova)

Radio channels (with local programs)

FREE EUROPE Czech Republic

Radio France International

Newspapers (Russia):

Kommersant plyus

Komsomolyskaya Pravda

Foreign investments in the Moldovan mass media

Foreign investments in the Moldovan mass media:

Publika TV (Romanian investments)

Jurnal Trust Media (German investments)

Other international media with a major impact on the local market:

PRIME TV channel (local name) - Pervii Kanal channel of Russia

TV7 (local name) - NTV channel of Russia

Media organizations

Associations of media channels:

CENTRE FOR INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM - supports professional journalism, promotes

qualitative, impartial and independent press

ASSOCIATION OF THE INDEPENDENT PRESS comprises regional publications, two press

agencies and the Centre for Independent Journalism

ECONOMIC PRESS ASSOCIATION comprises most of economic media from RM

JOURNALISTS UNION OF MOLDOVA its members are journalists from the entire country, it
is the oldest mass media association in Moldova. It supports independent & professional
journalism

Other associations (not influential), i.e. Electronic Press Association, Health Press Association
etc.

AUDIOVISUAL COORDINATING COUNCIL (CCA) - a national regulatory body that supervises audiovisual media outlets. Its members are appointed by the Parliament of Moldova;

Others: the Audit Bureau of Circulation, it is just being launched in Moldova and its members are
several media channels and private enterprises, interested in the real value of circulation of the press;

Media ownership

Public media channels: Moldova 1 TV and Radio Moldova

Other mass media institutions from Moldova are founded by journalists, business units, town halls, local
executive public institutions, or are local representatives of foreign mass media institutions (ProTV, Free
Europe)

Moldovan mass-media is not transparent in disclosing its owners

The only official media trust in Moldova is Jurnal Trust Media.

Media analysts divide Moldovan media in media groups, taking into consideration the editorial policy of
media outlets. The most developed are media groups controlled by political parties: i.e. communist
press, the liberal and liberal-democratic parties press and the independent one (very few)

Press groups & trusts

AnaliticMedia-grup (the same management team). This group is mainly focused on economic,
business and social areas. Political news are reflected impartially.

Infotag press agency

TV7 channel

Profit magazine

Euronova Media Grup (the same management team). This group is focused mainly on anticommunist topics.

Vocea Basarabiei radio station

Euronova TV channel (Nisporeni raion)

Jurnal Trust Media:

Jurnal de Chisinau newspaper

ECOnomist newspaper

Apropo newspaper

JurnalTV TV channel

Jurnal FM (radio channel)

Appendixes
1.

Particularities of Moldovan media environment (2 slides)

2.

Print & online media development

3.

Print market structure (the most popular newspapers)

4.

Broadcast media

5.

The most important TV channels

6.

The ratings of the most important TV channels

Particularities of Moldovan media environment

None of the private media institutions declare its sources and amount of funding, while public
institutions do not offer access to reports on how public funds are spent. In most cases,
founders of media outlets are not known by the public. There are no laws ensuring transparency
on media funding and ownership.

Mass media in Moldova isnt positioned as a business in the good meaning of the word, thus
independent press almost doesnt exist. Although rare, there are cases of self-financed
newspapers. Several publications have managed to establish a good reputation both as
credible information providers and as enterprises that can cover their publishing expenses and
even be profitable. Among these publications one can mention Logos Press newspaper and
Profit magazine. The regional press also has success stories with the weekly SP in Blti,
Unghiul in Ungheni, Cuvantul in Rezina and Observatorul de Nord in Soroca.

Public access to diverse sources of information is extremely precarious in the rural areas,
where most Moldovans live. Despite the formally high number of media, population does not
have access to diverse news sources in all regions of Republic of Moldova.

The most vibrant media scene is undoubtedly in Chisinau. Moldovas capital is home to 54.5%
of the outlets identified throughout the study, and boasts a variety of media.

Particularities of Moldovan media environment

The CSR projects, developed in Moldova, are not correctly approached neither by mass media,
who thinks that CSR projects are only promotional activities of its developers, nor by
developers, who demand from press to release media materials in the content and shape they
provide (conclusions made during the last conference organized on this topic with the
participation of mass media and business representatives).

Investigative journalism is not developed, too. This domain is only at the first stage of
development and now exists only due to the international organization programmes, i.e. Centre
for Investigative Journalism. Usually journalists publish this kind of materials due to participating
in special competitions.

Most journalists in Moldova are called universal journalists. Only a few media workers are
specialized in covering a certain area.

Print & online media development

The impact of printed media is still limited (according to a poll published in July 2009, 34.1% of
Moldova's population did not read newspapers at all in the last 3 months, while only 9.9% of the
population read newspapers on a daily basis and 25.1% several times a week).

Online media is developing fast during this year:

Unimedia and Stirea Zilei web portals are the most popular, due to the rapid reflection of
the political events in Moldova, mainly in the period of time related to the parliamentary
election campaigns (in 2009 ).
Other recently created web portals : Politik.md, OMG.md, Hotnews.md.
The blogging trend is represented by a narrow circle of persons. One cannot divide blogs
on a certain specialization.

Print market structure (the most popular newspapers)

Source: Newspapers information

Broadcast Media

The Moldovan broadcasting market has continuously developed since its very beginning. The
number of private radio stations increased from 20 in 1999 to 44 in 2008, and today there are
166 cable TV operators and 38 ground TV stations.

Moldovans, however, prefer foreign programmes. According to AGB Moldova, PRIME is the
most popular TV channel in Moldova, and 90% of its programming is rebroadcasts from the
Russian station Pervii Kanal. It rated 10 audience points in Chisinau in prime-time compared
with 3 to 6 points for the other TV channels (PRO TV, TV7, NIT, etc.) Newscasts are the most
popular local programmes.

According to Public Opinion Barometers, the press is one of the three most trusted social
institutions in the country. When it comes to information, 87% of respondents said TV was their
primary source. Radio was on the second place, with 48%.

According to the legislation in force, advertising in newscasts is prohibited. Almost all media
programmes, i.e. talk shows, are on commercial basis.

The most important TV channels in Moldova

Public television

Moldova 1 TV channel belongs to the public national broadcaster company Teleradio-Moldova

Moldova 1 (TVM) has a wide range of shows (social-political, economic, entertainment)

Teleradio-Moldova has founded the Moldova International TV & Radio channels, broadcasted by
satellite

Private TV channels

TV7, PRO TV, Publika TV, Jurnal TV, NIT, EU TV, 2PLUS, N4 and others

Other relevant information

Regional TV channels are in continuous development (about 28 channels in various raions)

TV channels broadcasting: 43 ether TV studios; 7 broadcasted by satellite TV;

The ratings of the most popular TV channel

Source: AGB Moldova, www.allmoldova.md