Five prominent online media got more transparent in its finances - IMI research

Five prominent Ukrainian media news websites demonstrate sufficient financial transparency. This is 10% of all 50 media surveyed. The last year's study found only 2 sites that made public its financial reports on their websites, ie 4%.

These are the results of a study by the Institute of Mass Information on the transparency of the 50 most popular Ukrainian online media. The research methodology is described in more detail in the first part here. 

The published financial statements or a clear indication of the entity financing the media (if it is the sole person or at least the main sponsor) were considered as sufficient transparency. 

The following media are financially transparent: Radio Liberty noted that they were funded by the US Congress through USAGM. Ukrinform and Hromadske traditionally publish financial reports. This year, Suspilne and ICTV made the same, ie they have improved their financial transparency over the last year. All these media received 1 point each.

Liga.net received half a point, as it reports at the bottom of the page: "Liga.net receives institutional support from the European Endowment for Democracy (EED)." But such a message does not appear on all pages of the site, but only on some, such as here . The site also collects donations for the editorial office. Similarly, the Ukrainian BBC service received half a point, whose financial report is available only in English, as last year. These are only 2 media with partial financial transparency, ie 4% of the surveyed. Last year there were 2% of them. 

The remaining 86% of surveyed websites remain financially opaque. In particular, the publication Depo.ua, which was included in this year's study, allegedly posted on the site audit reports and information of the issuer, but the relevant files contain an atypical extension, which did not allow us to open them (several laptops were used). We believe that the average site visitor will face the same problem. KP in Ukraine also failed, as their financial report is posted only on the old version of the site and dates back to 2018. 

We will remind, the following online editions got to research: Pravda.com.ua, Korrespondent.net, Rbc.ua, Censor.net.ua, Nv.ua, Gordonua.com, Liga.net, Zaxid.net, Unn.com. ua, Radiosvoboda.org, Espreso.TV, Ukrinform.ua, Bykvu.com, Slovoidilo.ua, Hromadske.ua, Zn.ua, suspilne.media, Babel.ua, Tsn.ua, Obozrevatel.com, 24tv.ua, Politeka.net, Znaj.ua, Unian.net, vgolos.com.ua, Segodnya.ua, Gazeta.ua, Glavcom.ua, vesti.ua, Ukranews.com, telegraf.com.ua, golos.ua, Kp. ua, Apostrophe.ua, Hvylya.net, From-ua.com, prm.ua, Interfax.com.ua, glavred.info, Fakty.ua (newspaper site), Comments.ua, Focus.ua, antikor.com. ua, Ictv.ua, Podrobnosti.ua, Bagnet.org, enovosty.com, www.bbc.com/ukrainian, racurs.ua, depo.ua.