Ukrainian media less lavish with value judgments

According to nationwide monitoring of the media carried out by the “Equal Opportunities” Committee and the “Joint Realm” Association, made public at a press conference on 28 August, Ukrainian media outlets are resorting less to value judgments.  The monitoring also found, however, that journalists are mixing the concepts of “politician – public official” and “politician – representative of a party”.

Reporting on their results, Oleksandr Chekmyshchev, Chair of the Equal Opportunities Committee, said that a lot less judgment was expressed than during previous campaigns, and that negative opinions were normally expressed by political opponents, and not by journalists.  Features on television were generally based on fact, not supposition. He did however say that some television channels continue to make their political preferences felt and resort to presenting information specially commissioned.

The main problem highlighted was that the media found it impossible to avoid mixing politicians as public officials and as representatives of their factions.  Those mentioned as falling into both categories included the Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, Arseny Yatsenyuk and Nestor Shufrych.

Internet resources were mentioned as very actively covering the election campaign.

The monitoring was carried out as part of a “Ukrainian Monitoring” Campaign from 1 to 26 August.