Poturayev: As of today, the telethon is not worth the money allocated for it

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As it is now, the telethon "United News" is not worth the money allocated for it, says Mykyta Poturayev, chair of the VRU Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy and a "Servant of the People" deputy, in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.

"I think it is no longer worth it. […] I believe, no matter what they say about the telethon, that political neutrality is skewed there, that there is an imbalance in representing political forces, there are objective facts that force us to admit this. I don't welcome this, I believe that all pro-Ukraine politicians should be represented there," he said, adding that the telethon now consists of private producers while only one channel, Rada, is state-owned.

"And no one could ever tell private producers that they must strictly adhere to political neutrality, because these are private media. Again, I believe that such imbalance is ugly, it causes reprimands from Western partners," Poturayev said.

The deputy also mentioned Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine (PBCU), which "also has a sizeable budget", and added that despite the PBCU being source of verified information, it also sometimes "makes mistakes and deviates from total political neutrality."

"But this happens everywhere, and on the BBC too. Because everyone who works in the media is a living person, with their own tastes, preferences, vision of the situation, and certain personal optics are still present. And that's normal," he said.

At the same time, Mykyta Poturayev believes that the telethin provides high-quality information, "meaning that it does not broadcast fakes."

"When they say that the telethon is wearing rose-tinted glasses and does not report on the problems... First of all, I disagree with this, because there is coverage of problems on the telethon. And do other media only talk about problems? Not at all. They talk about different things. I believe that there are reasonable questions to be asked about the telethon, yes, I believe that the telethon is going through a crisis, as suggested by the indicators that have been dropping throughout 2024, definitely. Can something be done about it? Obviously, we can and need to look for some solutions. And when it is time to talk funding, the same question should be asked: what are the plans – what will the country be getting for this money?" Poturayev said.

The opinion on the telethon

On November 16, 2023, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the telethon "United News" is one a key stage in the history of Ukraine's resilience.

In December 2023, the Freedom of Speech Committee chairman Yaroslav Yurchyshyn said that the quality of the telethon should be improved. However, he added that the telethon "resolved the issue of false reporting on the war and the combat." He also believes that the low quality of the "United News" telethon pushes people to look for alternative sources of information, so they often end up on anonymous Telegram channels that easily manipulate data.

According to a KIIS survey, the trust in "United News" dropped in May 2022 – October 2023. In December 2023, KIIS also recorded a drop in confidence in the telethon. The share of survey participants reporting confidence in the telethon was 69% in May 2022, and dropped to 48% in October 2023. In December 2023, this indicator dropped to 43%.

In February 2024, a national public opinion poll carried out by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) during February 5–10, 2024, showed that Ukrainians' trust in the telethon "United News" continues to drop: as of early February 2024, the share of those who trusts the telethon has decreased to 36%.

In May 2024, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) called upon Ukrainian authorities to overhaul the united telethon and consider closing this project altogether.

In July 2024, the NGO "Detector Media" presented the results of the study "Media Literacy Index: Ukrainians over 66". The study showed that for 55% of surveyed citizens over the age of 66, the telethon is the primary source of important news. However, 37.8% of respondents rated it negatively, which is 10% more than the negative response among citizens aged 18–65.