Civic monitoring makes TV news more balanced before the elections
Ukrainian TV channels before the parliamentary elections showed improved quality and balance of their news coverage, announced members of the Supervisory Board of the “Open News for Fair Elections” Memorandum at a press conference in Kyiv on October 31. The Memorandum was initiated by the Academy of the Ukrainian Press, Telekritika, the Institute of Mass Information, and the Common Space Association / Equal Access Committee with support of the International Renaissance Foundation. In September – October 2012, they monitored prime time news programs of Ukrainian television channels that signed the Memorandum: Inter, ICTV, STB, Novy Kanal, TRK Ukraina, Channel 5, and the First National Channel.
According to the Supervisory Board, the monitoring and expert assessment of the TV news coverage indicated improved compliance with the standards requiring the provision of complete and balanced information, and more equal access of different political forces to the TV channels’ broadcasting during the election campaign.
As the study performed by the Academy of the Ukrainian Press shows, there has been notable progress in the TV channels’ attention to politicians and the volume and frequency of their direct speech. In October 2012, the TV channels also provided a more balanced news coverage of participants of the election process. The most notable improvement has been observed at the Inter channel. In the third week of October it paid more attention to the opposition political forces than to the parties of the ruling majority (50% vs 38%). The trend to a more balanced media attention and the correlation between the political parties’ presence in the news and their public support figures in the opinion polls could be also observed at the ICTV, STB, and the Novy Channel. Meanwhile, the Ukraina and the First National Channel demonstrated notable bias in favor of pro-government political forces, giving them over 2/3 of their attention in the news.
“We have really seen a certain progress within the recent couple of weeks. But it is very important that the positive trends remain after the elections”, stressed Andrew Wilson, Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the initiative’s Supervisory Board.
“While numerous assessments point out to a shrinking space of democracy and a “step back” in the quality of the parliamentary elections, the progress in the quality of political news broadcasting by a number of Ukrainian TV channels, as noted by the monitoring experts, shows the presence of demand and supply of free speech and fair political journalism in Ukraine,” Oleksandr Sushko, member of the initiative’s Supervisory Board and chairman of the Board of the International Renaissance Foundation, said.
According to IRF Executive Director Yevhen Bystrytsky, “the monitoring initiative made it possible for the first time to have a direct dialogue between independent experts and representatives of the leading nation-wide TV channels. This dialogue proved that positive changes in the national media are possible. We believe that the model of an independent civic council that we created together with the TV channels for observing their compliance with international standards of fairness has proved to be effective and should be continued after the elections.”
Detailed information on the channel-by-channel quantitative analysis can be found at www.aup.com.ua.
Detailed qualitative analysis and description of the news coverage can be found at www.telekritika.ua.
In the last couple of years, Ukrainian television reporting has been characterized by an increasing bias in favor of the ruling party. As this was recognized as a problem to be resolved, the media monitoring NGOs: the Academy of the Ukrainian Press, Telekritika, the Institute of Mass Information, and the Common Space Association / Equal Access Committee together with the leading Ukrainian television channels: Inter, ICTV, STB, Novy Kanal, and TRK Ukraina signed on September 19, 2012, a memorandum on “Open News for Fair Elections” on media monitoring. The memorandum was joined shortly by the Channel 5, and the First National Channel. To monitor the monitors, an international supervisory board of Anders Aslund, Susan Corke, Oleksandr Sushko, and Andrew Wilson was formed. The project received expert and financial support from the International Renaissance Foundation (IRF).
The purpose of the project was to ensure a joint standard for objective media information on the election campaign and equal access for political forces to television broadcasting. The NGOs analyzed the adherence of basic standards of reporting journalism and quantitative news on the leading television channels during the election campaign. The monitoring results served as a basis for conclusions by the International Supervisory Board about the level of equality of access of political forces to television broadcasting during the election campaign.
Contacts:
International Renaissance Foundation
Stanislav Liachynsky
+38 095 276 89 92
liachinskiy@irf.ua
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Main objective of the International Renaissance Foundation is to provide financial and operational assistance to the development of an open and democratic society in Ukraine by supporting key civic initiatives in this area.
