“Media fuflo" (Media Crap) 2020 announced

The list of “Media crap” included 18 online media outlets that disseminated discrediting and manipulative information about human rights defenders and civil society activists. 

The results of the first analysis were published on December 29 on the Facebook page of the project, which was launched by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (UHHRU), ZMINA and the Institute of Mass Media (IMI).

The list includes several online media: apostrophe.ua, bagnet.org, from-ua.com, hvylya.net, newsone.ua, podrobnosti.ua, politeka.net, strana.ua, vesti.ua, ukranews.com, unn .com.ua, znaj.ua, 112.ua, enovosty.com, golos.ua, ictv.ua (“Emergency News” project), obozrevatel.com and zik.ua.

The media that were evaluated were selected on the basis of the list of the 50 most rated sites compiled by IMI in early autumn 2020. These media were analyzed for information that falls under the project criteria.

The information published during 2020 was taken into account.

The pieces were selected according to the following criteria:

-publication of unreliable information about the activities of public organizations, activists, human rights activists;

-hate speech, except for quotations;

-lack of balance during the coverage of the activities of public organizations, activists, human rights activists (only one opinion was presented, the negative one);

-manipulation during the coverage of the activities of public organizations, activists, human rights activists (comments and evaluative judgments as accomplished facts, non-separation of facts from comments, etc.);

-refusal to grant the right to reply to public organizations, activists, human rights activists, about whose activities false or unbalanced information has been published;

-harassment and threats to public organizations, activists, human rights activists;

-publication of confidential personal data of journalists, human rights activists, public activists without their permission;

-organization of events aimed at discrediting public activists, causing them physical harm;

-publication of personal data, financial information about journalists, human rights defenders and public activists (for example, telephone numbers, residential addresses, information about relatives, children, vehicle numbers, data on financial transactions, income, etc.) without their permission;

-publication of information without confirmation and indication of primary sources or on the basis of posts on social networks from anonymous pages (this criterion is used in combination with others).

The lists published within the project are formed on the basis of the applications submitted to the attention of the founding organizations, are based on the evaluation criteria and methodology and are the product of the evaluation judgment of the project organizing committee.

The organizers plan to prepare the following lists: "Crap channels" - a list of the most trashy telegram channels; Crap TV; “Crap blogger”; "Regional media crap."

Project resources: [email protected] , MEDIA FUFLO , twitter.com/FufloMedia , t.me/mediafuflo.

The Media Crap project was launched on November 17, 2020 by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (UHHRU), the ZMINA Human Rights Center and the Institute of Mass Media.

The project is implemented in order to identify media, bloggers, pages or channels on social networks and messengers who disseminate discrediting, manipulative and unreliable information about the media and / or civil society of Ukraine, as well as making public the list of such resources and disseminating this information among wide audience.

"Media crap" is one of the ways the civil society of Ukraine employs to counteract to the information campaign aimed at discrediting its representatives and disseminated through certain media, bloggers and social networks. 

The Media Crap project is not funded by any donor, but is an initiative exclusively of representatives of the founding organizations: Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, IMI, ZMINA.