Tymoshenko in top position as object of commissioned materials in online editions – IMI research

A quarter of materials (24%) with features suggesting they would be commissioned ones that the IMI experts revealed in the online editions are the materials in favour of the candidate for the presidency and leader of Batkivshchyna Yulia Tymoshenko. Such are the results of survey held by the NGO “Institute of Mass Information” (IMI) on February 2019. Totally, after revising 11 popular online editions, the experts identified 295 materials with features that suggested these materials have been pre-paid. Only 6,5% of stories having the features of being commissioned ones were marked as advertisement materials. But this marking did not correspond to the Law “On advertisement” (the materials had been placed under heading “Of current interest”, “Kyiv news” and so on, what is an improper marking of an advertisement). The leader of jeansa stories is Yulia Tymoshenko (24% of all materials having features that suggest the materials would have been commissioned). The most part of materials in a benefit to Tymoshenko were published by the online editions Obozrevatel (obozrevatel.com) and RBC (rbc.ua). The second position took the current Mayor of Lviv and candidate for the presidency Andriy Sadovyy (8% of would-be commissioned stories). Almost all materials came out at the 24th channel (24tv.ua), among the owners of which is the Sadovyy’s wife, Kateryna Kit-Sadova. The third position took both candidates for the presidency Anatoliy Grytsenko and Opoblock (in particular Oleksander Vilkul, the candidate representing this political force). Each of them had 6,5% of would-be commissioned materials among the whole number of would-be commissioned stories. As to Grytsneko, the stories with signs of jeansa were published by Obozrevatel (obozrevatel.com), and the most of materials in a benefit to Opoblock and Vilkul were published by Segodnya newspaper (segodnya.ua). 5% of stories with features of jeansa concerned Opositional plateform –For life and Vadym Rabynovych. The mostly these stories came out on RBC site (rbc.ua). The same number (5%) of stories with features that suggested they would be commissioned ones was published in favour of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vitaliy Klychko. Almost 3% of all materials with features suggesting it would be commissioned materials were black PR, in other words materials aiming to damage image and reputation. The most of such materials concerned activity of current president Petro Poroshenko, leader of Batkivshschyna Yulia Tymoshenko and functioning of commercial companies, as Ukrzaliznytya (Ukraine railway company). *Research if materials with features suggesting they wou;d be commissioned (jeansa) was conducted by IMI experts in eleven popular Ukrainian online media outlets obozrevatel.com, segodnya.ua, 24tv.ua, tsn.ua, strana.ua, pravda.com.ua, rbc.ua, unian.com, gordonua.com, nv.ua, Liga.net. The survey covered the period from 11 to 17 February 2019. The total sampling of analyzed materials was around 20 000. The research is conducted with support of the program USAID “Media program in Ukraine”, that is implemented by the international organization Internews Network.