efficient application in practice. The People's Advocate shares the opinion of the national media experts, according to which, the difficulties that the media in the country has to face are determined by the arbitrary and / or selective application of the legal norms.111 The quality of journalism in the Republic of Moldova In this Report, the People's Advocate also addresses the issue of the quality of journalism in the Republic of Moldova, given the magnitude of recent alarming trends such as manipulation, misinformation, propaganda, fake news, selective use of information, unverified data or personal data, spreading hate speech messages, etc. In the attention of the People's Advocate, there have been cases in which the media institutions, in pursuit of the audience, exploited the sensational using images or sequences, information that infringed the person's right to privacy, distributed fake news. The People's Advocate recalls that in a democratic society, citizens participate in public decision-making, which means that individuals have relevant and credible information from various sources that allow them to form and express their opinions, to make informed decisions about their government and society. Manipulation, misinformation, propaganda create wrong opinions and attitudes about socio-political realities and prevent people from making correct and assumed decisions which can affect their right to information and other rights. Quality journalism provides a range of diverse, credible, interesting and timely information available to the public and counteracts propaganda and misinformation. Quality journalism serves the public interest, is based on the good faith and ethics of the profession, provides accurate and verified information that respects the principles of fairness, independence of transparency and public accountability. The People's Advocate emphasizes the importance of the representatives of the journalistic community respecting the norms of the Professional Code of Ethics, without which the quality of journalism cannot be discussed. The People's Advocate encourages journalists, media institutions to sign the Code of Ethics for Journalism in the Republic of Moldova and to strictly follow its rules. 111 Index on the Situation of the Press in Moldova (ISPM) in 2019, launched on February 26, 2020 by the Center for Independent Journalism; 62