Information residents of the South and the East lack most is about combating corruption — survey

One in every five surveyed residents of the South and the East of Ukraine (21%) felt lack of information about combating corruption on the local level. At the same time, local media outlets address this topic only in about 1% of the news.

These are the results of the survey of residents of eight oblasts of the South and the East of Ukraine, which was conducted in the beginning of 2017 by the company GfK commissioned by the Institute of Mass Information with the support of the Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative (UCBI) and USAID, as well as of the monitorings conducted by ІМІ.

Also, 21% of the surveyed lacked unbiased news of the national or local levels. Approximately one in every ten lacked information about activities of the local authorities, the war in the East of Ukraine, local journalist investigations and information about local civil society and local volunteer initiatives.

The surveyed residents that most lacked Information about combating corruption were in Dnipropetrovska (28%), Zaporizka (27%), Mykolayivska (24%) and Kharkivska oblasts (20%).

Unbiased news of the national and local levels were in most demand by the surveyed residents in Donetska (24% and 26%, respectively), Luhanska (24% and 25%, respectively), Mykolayivska (30% and 27%) and Khersonska oblasts (14% and 17%).

The residents of Dnipropetrovska and Odeska oblasts (16% in each) need information about the war in the East of Ukraine most. According to the research of IMI, Dnipro-based media outlets address this topic in 5% of news and in Odeska oblast — less than 1%.

Note: 

The survey was conducted by the company GfK commissioned by the Institute of Mass Information with the support of the Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative (UCBI) and USAID in January-March of 2017 in eight oblasts of the East and the South of Ukraine (Dnipropetrovska, Kharkivska, Zaporizka, Mykolayivska, Khersonska and Odeska oblasts, the territories of Donetska and Luhanska oblasts under control of the Ukrainian government). The survey covered 15,103 respondents. The theoretical margin of error for the entire sample does not exceed 1% and 2.5% for each oblast with probability of 0.95. The first wave of the research was conducted in November 2015 – January 2016 and covered 13, 830 respondents in six oblasts of the East and the South of Ukraine (all listed above, except for Khersonska and Mykolayivska oblasts).