Monitoring for July 2014 watch here.

 Monitoring methodology details watch here.

1. 1.       Materials with violations of professional standards that may indicate censored or paid information.

The table below presents the amount of materials on social and political topics which violate professional standards as a sign of censored or paid information.

Table 1. General amount of materials with violations of professional standards that may indicate censored or paid information.

During the analyzed week in September, the majority of materials featuring paid news included traditional "hardwood" messages about statements or meetings of officials. The biggest amount of materials was about President Poroshenko (reports about 7 events) and Prime Minister Yatsenyuk (reports about 6 events). There were also reports about Prosecution General, Avakov, and Nalivaychenko; and these reports lacked balance and backgrounds. These reports were presented as conclusions or evaluations, often questionable and doubtful, and they needed comments of people involved in particular events or experts’ statements, too. It is important to add that the list does not include reports of NSDC or ATO press-centre. Although the information they publish is similar to the one described above, it is still a factual and official explanation of the events which currently take place in the Eastern Ukraine (although recently, serious questions arose regarding trustworthiness and accuracy of the information they shared). Maximum of “hardwood” materials (8 during the week) were on First National, “1+1”, ICTV, and “Ukrayina”. Other channels had less. For instance, there were six materials on New Channel and 5th Channel, five on STB, and 4 on “Inter”.

During analyzed week in September, some channels had materials that contained pre-election PR of particular politicians and their political parties. For instance, "Inter" and ICTV included Oleh Lyashko’s comments in a video about events on the front (such as preparing Mariupol for resistance or sending tanks into ATO zone). It’s important to add that Lyashko is not a competent participator of the events, so his comments were not necessary. Also, on September 5, ICTV aired an extremely unbalanced material, in which Lyashko accused Kyiv’s deputies from two parties - “UDAR” and "Solidarity"- in “selling valuable lands of the capital”. On September 1, "Ukrayina” showed a material about charity event organized by Kolesnikov Fund, and Hanna Herman commented on it. On September 4, "Inter" had a material which advertised "Party of Ukraine’s Development", created by Liovochkin for the elections. On September 5, ICTV and "Ukrayina” aired unbalanced videos where they talked about “Batkivshchyna”  initiative to collect signatures for organizing a referendum, so Ukraine could join NATO; and Yulia Tymoshenko commented on the video, too.

Five (!) unbalanced materials against “Privat” group and its owner, Kolomoyskyi, appeared on “Inter” during the week. Journalists did not give Kolomoyskyi or somebody from the group a chance to comment on the criticism. ICTV also had one similar material during the week.

Table 2. Amount of materials on business topics that indicated paid information:

During the analyzed week, there were only three materials on business topics that indicated paid information: ICTV showed unbalanced material where commercial director of “Kyivenergo” advertised changes in heating payment. On September 4, “Ukrayina” talked about programs for students organized by a concern “DTEK”. “1+1” advertised a new service of “PrivatBank”: student cards called “Junior”. There were materials on "Ukrayina" about humanitarian aid from Akhmetov fund (in fact, there were seven of them during a week!); and there was also material on “New Channel” about company “Interpipe" buying body armor for its employees fighting in ATO.  Still, taking into consideration existing situation, these materials should be regarded as political PR of channel owners rather than commercial, or image-making, PR.

Table 3. Amount of materials with such violations: UNBALANCED AND TOO POSITIVE MATERIALS ABOUT THE OFFICIALS:

In materials that indicated paid or censored information, the channels violated such standards:

Table 4.1. Violation of BALANCE OF OPINIONS:

 Table 4.2. Violation of COMPLETENESS of information:

Table 4.3. Violation of SEPARATING FACTS FROM OPINIONS:

Table 4.4. Violation of AUTHENTICITY of information:

Table 4.5. Violation of ACCURACY of information:

1. 2.      Suppression of socially important information in September 2014

During the analyzed week of September 2014, the channels often ignored topics that the government could find uncomfortable (data for September includes one week from 1st to 7th September, data for July is a week from 7th until 13th, data for May includes period from 5th until 11th, data for March includes a period from 3rd to 8th, data for January includes a period from 20th to 25th, and data for December 2013 includes a period from 2nd to 7th of December).

Table 5. General amount of suppressions of important topics, thoughts, ideas, facts, and backgrounds.

Table 6. Amount of suppression about various mass protests 

Table 7. Amount of informational suppression about pressure on freedom of speech: 

None of the channels reported that:

Near Ilovaysk, separatists captured a journalist of “Espreso TV” (1st of September).

Table 8. Amount of informational suppression about war and other crimes of the occupants and their allies in Ukraine.

None of the channels reported such events:

 Self-proclaimed Crimean authorities denied high school seniors an opportunity to finish their studies in Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar languages ​​(September 1)

In a few days, Russia moved to Ukraine around 10-20 thousand soldiers – as stated by the Advisor of the Minister of Defense (September 1)

Ukrainians in Russia are forced to obtain refugee status and are being relocated to Siberia - the National Security Council (September 2)

During ATO, a hospital in Dnipropetrovsk region received around 1800 wounded soldiers (September 2)

Under Ilovaysk, 200 Ukrainian militants were captured - the National Security Council (September 2)

As a result of shelling, Donetsk was left without water (3 September)

Russia sent around 300 refugees from Ukrainian Donbas to Kamchatka (September 3)

DNR militants captured the office of FC "Shakhtar" in Donetsk (September 3)

Russian human rights activists state that at least 2 thousand Russian soldiers were killed in Eastern Ukraine (September 3)

In Crimea, unknown people kidnapped Ukrainian Greek-Catholic priest and a group of pilgrims from Evpatoria (September 3)

In Donetsk, the militants occupied lying-in hospital and forced pregnant women and women in labor into the basement. (4 September)

Militants plan to bombard the living districts of Makiyivka and Donetsk from their “Grad” system in order to present them as ATO bombarding - National Security Council (September 5)

Militants urge residents of Donbas to get passports of so-called "DNR" and "LNR" (September 5)

Russia Migration Service gave militants lists of refugees from Donbas for the "nationalization" of their apartments (5 September)

In the Tauride National University, occupiers shut down the department of the Crimean Tatar literature (5 September)

The FSB organizes mass searches in the homes of Crimean Tatars (September 5)

Father of a Russian tanker complained to Russian journalists that after his son returned from a “hell" in Donetsk, he would be forwarded to Mariupol (September 5)

In Donetsk region, Russian mercenaries forced farmers to repair their equipment and build fortifications (5 September)

The Red Cross could not send humanitarian aid to Luhansk because of constant fire of separatists (September 6)

Table 9: Statements and actions of the international community over events in Ukraine:

None of the channels reported these events/facts: 

 Territorial concessions only increase the appetite of aggressors - President of Germany (September 1)

Steinmeier warns Russia against trying to annex land corridor in Crimea (September 1)

NATO chief: Russian troops conduct direct military operations within Ukraine (September 2)

NATO believes that the Ukrainian government has lost the military conflict in Donbas and has no control over the Eastern borders (September 2)

The Georgian parliament unanimously passed a resolution accusing Russia for aggression against Ukraine (September 3)

Australia stopped uranium supply to Russia (September 3)

Pentagon: On Ukraine’s border, there are 10 thousand Russian soldiers (September 3)

Komorowski: Poroshenko did not ask for weapons in Poland (4 September)

Russian Foreign Ministry has threatened Ukraine with complication of the situation in Donbas if Ukraine got closer to NATO (September 5)

Senator McCain: United States did not follow the conditions of the Budapest Memorandum (September 5)

White House: US prepare new sanctions against Russia (September 5)

Speaker of the Duma was not allowed into Norway (September 5)

Other notable topics that were silenced by all the channels:

 Patriarch Filaret appealed to Constantinople with a request to evaluate the lies of Patriarch Cyril (Russian Orthodox Church) who said that followers of Kiev Patriarchate and Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church “were destroying Orthodoxy" in Donbas (September 1)

Two more criminal cases were opened against former Attorney General Pshonka (2 September)

"Donbas" combat: Those who are willing to fight cannot get into ATO while those who cannot fight are mobilized (2 September)

Semen Semenchenko, combat of "Donbas”, accused higher officials for their incompetency that delays ATO completion (2 September)

According to the poll of KMIC, six parties will get into the parliament while the Communist Party and the Party of Regions will not overcome the 5% barrier (September 3)

Ukraine prepares claims to international courts against Russia for compensation over destroyed Donbas - Petrenko (September 3)

Poroshenko eliminated the working groups on cooperation with the Customs Union (September 3)

In 2004, Putin began to prepare for war with Ukraine – Avakov’s advisor (September 3)

Combat of "Luhansk 1" states that the Russians used ammunition prohibited by international conventions that penetrated body armor (4 September)

Semenchenko: Some are fighting not at the front, but at the press-conferences where they discredit Ukrainian militia leaders (4 September)

Soldiers' Mothers of Ukraine appealed to mothers of Russian soldiers to end the war (4 September)

Monitoring of compliance with professional standards in the information services of Ukrainian TV channels was carried by NGO "Telekritika" with financial support by USAID, provided through the "Internews Network". The purpose of monitoring is to increase media literacy of Ukrainian society, motivate media to be just and responsible, respect professional standards, and improve the quality of media products.

Monitoring focused on videos about social and political topics in the main news of such channels as  "Inter», ICTV, «1 +1», STB, New Channel, First National, Channel 5, and TRC "Ukrayina". The monitoring period took place on 5-11 May.

Monitoring is an independent expert assessment of the NGO "Telekritika." All conclusions and opinions expressed in all monitoring publications may not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the "Internews Network". Monitoring methodology is described here. For the materials, see the section "Monitoring" on the website MediaSapiens. In 2012, the methodology has changed, so now monitoring is carried out for one week every month.

Note: Data for September includes one week from 1st to 7th September, data for July is a week from 7th until 13th, data for May includes period from 5th until 11th, data for March includes a period from 3rd to 8th, data for January includes a period from 20th to 25th, and data for December 2013 includes a period from 2nd to 7th of December.