For the first time, five online media took top position in IMI's professional standards rating

For the first time, "Ukrainsky Tyzhden", Ukrinform, Liga.net, "Dzerkalo Tyzhdnya" and "Ukrainska Pravda" shared first position at the journalistic standards ranking for online mass media.

These are the results of an analysis of 17 online media conducted by NGO "Institute of Mass Information" conducted with the support of "Internews-Network" * in January 2020.

98% of the matreials published by the above-mentioned resources did not contain any infringement to professional standards of journalism.

The second place in terms of adherence to professional standards for the first time was taken by "Censor", with 94% of news that did not contain any violation. The third place was up to RBC-Ukraine website.

At the same time, the worst websites in terms of professional standards were found out "Strana" only 60% that had no violations of standards) and "Znay.ua", where only 14% of the news had no violations (i.e. the vast majority of materials on this portal has nothing to do with professional journalism).

As the IMI research evidenced, the Ukrainian online mass media most often violates the professional journalistic standard of separating facts from commentaries. On average, this standard was respected in 90% of materials.

The second place in terms of frequency of violations is violation of the standard of credibility (respected in 92.5% of  total number of materials). The best observed standard in online media was the standard of balance : respected in 94.5% of  total number of materials.

The full analysis is available here.

* The monitoring analysis was conducted in January 2020 in 17 nationwide online mass media (the ten most rated and seven mass media outlets which had signed the Memorandum of compliance with professional standards): obozrevatel.com, segodnya.ua, 24tv.ua, tsn.ua, strana.ua, strana.ua , pravda.com.ua, 112.ua, znaj.ua rbc.ua, unian.com, gordonua.com, nv.ua (M), liga.net (M), ukrinform.ua (M), zn.ua (M), censor.net.ua (M), tyzhden.ua (M), interfax.com.ua (M). 

The total sample was 850 materials: 50 materials, taken simultaneously from each website which are covered by this monitoring.

The methodology of the study can be found here.

 This research was made possible thanks to support of the American people through the USAID Media Program in Ukraine, implemented by the international organization Internews Network. The content of this material is under the sole responsibility of the Institute of Mass Infrormation and does not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the US Government, or the Internews Network.