April 18 (SeeNews) - Moldova has descended ten places to 91st position in the World Press Freedom index of Reporters Without Borders as its media is diverse but extremely polarised, the non-governmental organization said on Thursday.
The editorial line of the leading media outlets correlates closely with the political and business interests of their owners – a problem that was particularly visible during the campaign for the 2019 parliamentary elections, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in its 2019 World Press Freedom Index report.
Journalistic independence and quality, and the concentration of media ownership in Moldova are major challenges, RSF said.
As local media battle with each other in a climate exacerbated by Moldovan society’s polarisation, the lack of independence of the broadcasting regulatory authority remains a source of concern, the NGO added.
In comparison of media freedom of countries in Southeast Europe, Moldova ranked higher than N.Macedonia (95th), Montenegro (104th) and Bulgaria (111th), but lower than Slovenia (34th), Romania (47th), Bosnia (63rd), Croatia (64th), Greece (65th), Kosovo (75th), Albania (82nd),Serbia (90th), the World Press Freedom Index 2019 showed.
Published by RSF annually since 2002, the World Press Freedom Index measures the level of freedom available to journalists in 180 countries using the following criteria – pluralism, media independence, media environment and self-censorship, legislative environment, transparency, infrastructure, and abuses.