Moldova profile - Media

Moldova has several Russian-language media outlets

Television is the most popular medium, although online media are increasingly influential. Politicians and business figures control the main broadcasting outlets.

The top TV station is Prime, which rebroadcasts entertainment programmes from Russia's Channel One alongside its own output.

Public Moldova One TV broadcasts nationally.

Political battles between the pro-Russia and pro-West camps are played out in the media.

A 2017 "anti-propaganda" law bans rebroadcasts of Russian TV news and current affairs and a 2019 broadcasting code says that at least half of the programming bought from foreign broadcasters must come from EU countries.

But Russian TV stations themselves remain popular.

Moldovan media are blocked in the breakaway Trans-Dniester region, and vice versa.

Most private FM radio networks rebroadcast output from Russian and Romanian stations.

The press divides along party political lines. The overall reach of the press is low and in decline. There is only one daily newspaper, the Moldovan version of a Russian tabloid.

The internet is the second most important source of news after TV. Nearly 2.9 million Moldovans were online by 2017 - around 71% of the population (Internetworldstats.com).

A 2018 survey found that Facebook is the most popular social network, followed by Russian platform Odnoklassniki and Instagram.

The press

The reach and impact of print media are low