Position of judiciary almost not presented in the news - IMI research

The position of the judiciary is almost not represented in the news of the Ukrainian online media. And the coverage of court activities and the work of judges has a significant mismatch in favor of negative accents. These are the results of the monitoring  the Institute of Mass Information conducted analyzing 18 sites *. In total, the sample included 2009 news items, of which 582 (or 29%) concerned courts and judges.

The study evidenced that the coverage of the courts’ activity is significantly dominated by reports with a negative aspect 41.2% vs. 3.4% positive. For comparison: this contrasts sharply with the coverage of police activities, where the ratio is 27.6% -6.8% in favor of positive reports.

The monitoring also revealed that the court officials have been almost absolutely inexistent in mass media stories. Only 11 out of 582 news items about court activities (1.9%) contained comments from court representatives (press secretaries or chairmen). 

The full study can be found here . 

The monitoring analysis was conducted on February 22–28, 2021 in 18 national online media (10 top-rated, seven media that signed a memorandum of the Media Movement for compliance with professional standards, as well as two sites that expressed a desire to be on the list of media to be monitored): .com, korrespondent.net segodnya.ua, 24tv.ua, tsn.ua, strana.ua, pravda.com.ua, politeka.net, rbc.ua, gordonua.com, nv.ua (M), liga.net (M), ukrinform.ua (M), zn.ua (M), censor.net.ua (M), interfax.com.ua (M), suspilne.media (M), bykvu.com (M). The sample is 2009 news.

This study was made possible by the support of the American people through the USAID Media Program in Ukraine, implemented by the international organization Internews Network. The contents are the sole responsibility of the Institute for Mass Information and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the US Government or the Internews Network.