Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the fairness of the media coverage in Moldova of the Presidential elections held in that country in October and November 2016.

We share the assessment of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe/Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Election Observation Mission which covered the first and second rounds of the Presidential elections in Moldova on 30 October and 13 November 2016. The OSCE/ODIHR concluded that both rounds were competitive with respect for fundamental freedoms. They also noted, however, that the electoral process was marred by widespread abuse of administrative resources, lack of campaign finance transparency and unbalanced media coverage with politically affiliated broadcasters portraying some candidates in an increasingly negative tone, especially in the run-up to the second round. We urge the Moldovan authorities to consider measures to deal with these priorities for the future.