More TV channels muffling important news items
The situation with television news broadcasts is worsening as the results of monitoring for September show.
Table 1: The number of items of a socio-political nature which showed signs of having been commissioned (censorship)
Channel | September | August | July |
Inter | 151 | 103 | 96 |
First National TV – UTV1 | 126 | 113 | 83 |
ICTV | 106 | 104 | 99 |
«1+1» | 105 | 100 | 60 |
Channel 5 | 67 | 73 | 41 |
“Ukraina” | 60 | 33 | 26 |
Novy Kanal | 44 | 35 | 29 |
STB | 17 | 16 | 17 |
Business commissioned material, save a few cases, has virtually disappeared, however the amount of political commissioned material is continuing to rise with the questionable first going to Inter, the channel owned by media magnate, Head of the Security Service [SBU] and member of the High Council of Justice, Valery Khoroshkovsky. Second place is taken by the State-owned First National TV Channel [UTV-1], while ICTV is only just ahead of “1 + 1” for third place.
It can be seen that in many cases the number of such commissioned items has risen steeply.
Only STB is consistently holding out with a relatively small number.
The monitoring showed that in September both 1 + 1 and Channel 5 often broadcast material of a probably commissioned nature in unison with Inter, UTV-1 and ICTV.
Telekritika has noted on a number of occasions that the latter three channels very often cover events linked with the government and criminal prosecutions against the opposition in the same way.
Table 2. Quantity of sponsored (censored) materials in the two main directions:
Channel | Positive or neutral material about those in power without balance of views | Negative material about the opposition without balance of views | ||||
| September | August | July | September | August | July |
Inter | 137 | 99 | 91 | 18 | 7 | 9 |
First National TV – UTV1 | 114 | 112 | 78 | 13 | 4 | 9 |
ICTV | 98 | 101 | 90 | 9 | 5 | 8 |
«1+1» | 88 | 91 | 57 | 19 | 6 | 7 |
Channel 5 | 60 | 72 | 41 | 10 | 3 | 3 |
“Ukraina” | 51 | 31 | 25 | 9 | 3 | 3 |
Novy Kanal | 39 | 32 | 28 | 6 | 1 | 1 |
STB | 16 | 15 | 15 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
NB The total amount does not necessarily tally with the figures in Table 1 since some material can follow both lines at the same time.
The general trends remain the same, the difference only that Inter this time overtook UTV-1 One notices a significant increase in positive material about the government on “Ukraina” [owned by Rinat Akhmetov, billionaire and National Deputy from the Party of the Regions].
The situation changed rather in September away from almost totally ignoring the opposition to an increase in negative and unbalanced material. Here the lead is taken by Inter and UTV-1. Reports were mainly of criminal prosecutions of ex-officials by the new authorities. Material about confrontation in parliament when the opposition demanded a moratorium on communal charges and the raising of the pension age for women was general lacking in balance and objectively and pushed the them of the opposition not knowing what they wanted. The monitoring found a number of commissioned features where various accusations by the government against its predecessors were repeated without background and without those accused given the opportunity to reply.
A traditional means of imitating government activity is seen in the standard skimpy reports on various types of meetings, councils, etc.
Table 3 The number of short reports providing an imitation of government activity
Channel | September | August |
Inter | 95 | 45 |
UTV-1 | 89 | 64 |
ICTV | 75 | 56 |
«1+1» | 51 | 41 |
Channel 5 | 39 | 31 |
“Ukraina” | 34 | 17 |
Novyi Kanal | 32 | 19 |
STB | 12 | 6 |
There was a noticeable decrease in the number of items where facts and opinions were carefully selected to justify government decisions or failures. Most such items are as before found on UTV-1, Inter and ICTV, whereas Channel 5 and Novy Kanal have virtually abandoned such practice. Neither STB nor “Ukraina” have covered topics in this manner.
Table 4. Quantity of detailed topics on substantiation of ‘correctness’ of the authorities’ decisions or justification of the authorities’ failures.
Channel | September | August |
ICTV | 12 | 17 |
Inter | 9 | 21 |
UTV-1 | 8 | 21 |
«1+1» | 5 | 11 |
Channel 5 | 2 | 5 |
Novyi Kanal | 1 | 7 |
STB | 0 | 2 |
Ukraina | 0 | 1 |
Sponsored and unbalanced material on the success of enforcement bodies – the Security Service, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Prosecutor General, Customs Service, and Tax Administration was on the same level as in August except for a noticeable increase in such items on “Ukraina”.
Table 5: The number of short (incomplete and unbalanced) reports on enforcement body success
Channel | September | August |
«1+1» | 31 | 31 |
Inter | 29 | 20 |
5 Kanal | 17 | 20 |
“Ukraina” | 15 | 7 |
UTV-1 | 14 | 15 |
ICTV | 8 | 9 |
Novyi Kanal | 5 | 2 |
STB | 3 | 5 |
However channels mostly omit topics concerning unlawful actions by enforcement bodies and more deaths of people detained or in police custody. News items ignored included the death of a detainee in a Lviv police station on 9 September, the killing of a motorcyclist by two traffic police and others.
Table 6: The types of infringements committed to carry out a political commission (censorship)
Channel | Balance of opinions | Completeness of information | ||||
| S | A | J | S | A | J |
Inter | 148 | 101 | 96 | 142 | 98 | 95 |
UTV-1 | 114 | 113 | 83 | 113 | 112 | 81 |
ICTV | 104 | 103 | 98 | 101 | 99 | 96 |
«1+1» | 98 | 93 | 65 | 99 | 92 | 60 |
Channel 5 | 65 | 69 | 40 | 63 | 70 | 39 |
“Ukraina” | 58 | 30 | 27 | 55 | 31 | 27 |
Novy Kanal | 43 | 33 | 28 | 42 | 29 | 28 |
STB | 17 | 14 | 16 | 17 | 16 | 16 |
Channel | Separation of facts from opinions | Authenticity | Accuracy | ||||||
| S | A | J | S | A | J | S | A | J |
Inter | 49 | 26 | 20 | 17 | 27 | 9 | 12 | 5 | 5 |
ICTV | 41 | 31 | 24 | 12 | 17 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7 |
«1+1» | 40 | 24 | 16 | 15 | 25 | 7 | 10 | 0 | 2 |
UTV-1 | 34 | 31 | 20 | 19 | 25 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 4 |
“Ukraina” | 14 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 1 |
Novy Kanal | 13 | 11 | 9 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Channel 5 | 8 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
STB | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Information of public importance avoided by the channels
Political commissioning continues to be exercised to a large extent by avoiding issues or aspects of them, including alternative points of view, expert assessments, specific facts or background where this is inconvenient for the government.
Table 7: The number of topics, views, facts or backgrounds avoided
Channel Name | September | August | July |
Inter | 410 | 286 | 248 |
ICTV | 398 | 273 | 228 |
UTV-1 | 395 | 276 | 253 |
Novy Kanal | 389 | 280 | 227 |
“Ukraina” | 369 | 265 | 211 |
Channel 5 | 362 | 243 | 182 |
STB | 357 | 238 | 211 |
«1+1» | 350 | 252 | 207 |
The figures, unfortunately, speak for themselves.
Table 8. The number of protest actions; bans on such protests as well as the action of the police in blocking them and detaining their participants, which received no coverage
Channel | September | August | July |
Inter | 36 | 34 | 47 |
UTV-1 | 35 | 33 | 43 |
ICTV | 35 | 33 | 41 |
Channel 5 | 29 | 22 | 31 |
«1+1» | 27 | 28 | 35 |
Novy Kanal | 26 | 32 | 38 |
STB | 24 | 28 | 34 |
“Ukraina” | 21 | 25 | 29 |
Table 9. The number of times channels said nothing on issues linked with infringements of freedom of speech.
Channel | September | August | July |
UTV-1 | 48 | 41 | 25 |
Inter | 47 | 42 | 25 |
ICTV | 47 | 40 | 25 |
«1+1» | 45 | 39 | 23 |
“Ukraina” | 44 | 40 | 23 |
Novy Kanal | 43 | 39 | 19 |
STB | 40 | 31 | 19 |
Channel 5 | 38 | 26 | 13 |
Table 10. Number of omissions of information regarding the lowering of social standards of the population or certain groups of it (increase of commodity prices, increase in tax rates, communal charges, charges for main services, the raising of the retirement age, closing of public sector institutions and resulting loss of jobs, etc.)
Channel | September | August | July |
Inter | 68 | 57 | 59 |
ICTV | 67 | 53 | 55 |
Channel 5 | 64 | 55 | 52 |
UTV-1 | 63 | 62 | 63 |
Novy Kanal | 60 | 59 | 62 |
“Ukraina” | 60 | 55 | 54 |
STB | 58 | 58 | 51 |
«1+1» | 55 | 50 | 52 |
The monitoring is carried out as part of a project of the Internews Network “U-Meida” on journalist standards. It is being carried out jointly by Telekritika and the Institute for Mass Information.
Abridged from the full report at
http://osvita.telekritika.ua/material/do-unisonu-iedinoyi-informaciynoyi-politiki-dodayutsya-novi-telekanali