Due to limited access to Crimea, only 19% of materials about peninsula offer balance of opinions - survey

Only 19% materials where journalists from mainland Ukraine cover the issue of Crimea can be considered as offering a balance of opinions, yet this is caused by limited access to the peninsula for Ukrainian journalists. This was the result of the survey published on December 8 by the experts of the Society of Eastern European Democratic Center  and "Internews Ukraine" at the press conference in Kyiv, Ukrinform reports. At that the experts indicated that the accuracy of information for covering issues related to Crimea is as high as 89%, and is confirmed by other sources, and only 11% of materials is impossible to verify. Around 80% of information sources used by journalists are open for public, in 14%  cases journalists reveal them only partly, and only in 6% of cases journalists make a reference to an unnamed or closed source of information. The main reason for not revealing the source of information is considerations of safety of the informers in Crimea who can be harassed by occupation authorities.

The monitoring for the survey was conducted from august 1 till September 30, 2015, in total around 1000 of printed materials were analyzed.