In 2017, Opposition Bloc and Liashko ordered jeansa the most – IMI monitoring

In 2017, in all-Ukrainian press and online media outlets, one in every five political jeansa materials was commissioned by the Opposition Bloc (20%). The Radical Party and its leader Oleh Liashko are also among those commissioning the most jeansa— 12% of the total amount of political jeansa.

These are the results of IMI’s research about observance of journalism standards and presence of materials with attributes of being commissioned in ten popular online media outlets («Ukrainska Pravda», «Liga», UNIAN, Ukrinform, «Korrespondent», Channel 112, LB.ua, «Strana.ua», «Obozrevatel» and «Censor.нет») and six printed editions («Vesti», «Segodnia», «KP v Ukraine», «Fakty», «Dzerkalo Tyzhnia » and «Novoie Vremia »), which is conducted with the support from Internews Network.

The online media outlets that published commissioned materials most often during this year are «Obozrevatel» and UNIAN, and the printed media outlets that did so is the newspaper «Segodnia», which marks advertising materials in violation of the legislation.

Based on the year’s results, the shares of political and commercial jeansa in online media outlets constituted 86% and 14%, respectively. In printed media outlets, the shares of political and commercial jeansa were equal, 50% each.

The highest level of commissioned materials in online media outlets was observed in the first quarter of 2017 — 99 materials a week in ten media outlets, and the lowest — in the fourth quarter — 58 materials. In printed media outlets, to the contrary, the lowest level was observed in the first quarter, and the highest — in the second.

«Overall, the level of covertly commissioned materials fluctuates more or less along the levels of political activity in the country. The level of political jeansa mostly follows the parliamentary agenda: when the parliament considers important draft laws — the level of jeansa goes up, otherwise it goes down. So the jeansa rhetoric reflects the position of a certain party as to support or no support to a certain draft law, for instance, medical, court, or education reforms», — IMI’s expert Olena Holub points out.

As to the journalism standards, in 2017, online media outlets most often violated the standards of balance and of authenticity: about 12% of materials lack balance and are inaccurate. The standard of separation of facts and comments was on average violated in 9% of the news.

The standard the printed media outlets violate most often was that of authenticity — in 26% of the materials. The standards of balance and the standard of separation of facts and comments were violated on average in 18% of materials.

The leaders in observance of journalism standards were «Liga», Ukrinform, and «Ukrainska Pravda».

The methodologies of monitoring for jeansa and journalism standards are available on the website of IMI.