ICTV, “Inter” and “Ukrayina” were leaders for airing paid news during the week. First National aired the most balanced materials, but their technological and visual qualities were low. For the first time after a long period, STB aired paid news. 

“Opposition Block” had the biggest amount of paid news comparing to other political forces. “Hromadyanska Posytsiya” also started paying for news. First National and “1+1” gave word to the representative of terrorists.

The level of paid news in weekly programs on October 12 was significantly lower comparing to the daily news. At the same time, guests invited to the studio used the opportunity to agitate for certain political forces.

The severity of the talk show "Pravo na vladu" dropped. For the second time in a row, leader of “Sylna Ukrayina” Serhiy Tihipko has been invited to the program. "Chorne dzerkalo” favors candidates from “Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party".

Daily news from 6-11 October (detailed monitoring)

News programs on the First National are the most balanced among other channels and air news without paid materials. However, materials are usually based on officials’ statements: parquet videos, low-quality presentation of the heroes, static video line, and indifference to important details. All the comments that have been glued together are shown with flaws. Such violations were repeated throughout the week. On Saturday, October 11, First National violated the rule of not giving voice to the terrorists. It aired the commentary of the self-proclaimed prime minister of so-called DNR Oleksandr Zakharchenko.

Throughout the week, "1 +1" almost daily aired material with criticism of Lyashko and the candidates  from his party such as Oleh Averyanov and Yaroslav Misyats. The materials used subjective evaluations, judgments and references that were impossible to verify. "1+1" emphasizes on Lyashko’s absence in parliament when the deputies were voting for anti-corruption laws. The channel did not speak about any other deputies missing from Verkhovna Rada at that time. At the end of the week, the channel made fun of Oleh Lyashko in the material about radical clowns. All of the materials do not represent balance of opinions since the channel does not show Lyashko’s or his candidates’ comments. "1+1" often violates the standard of separating facts from comments and uses unjustified assessments and judgments. On Thursday, October 9, “TSN” aired a material with Zakharchenko as central hero. With this, "1 + 1" broke the rule of not giving voice to the terrorists.

Throughout a week, ICTV advertised the “family” through paid news. The channel aired two materials with the commentaries of the father-in-law of the channel’s owner and ex-President Leonid Kuchma that did not represent any value to the audience. Also, the analysis showed hidden political advertising from parties "Svoboda", "Sylna Ukrayina" and "Opposition block."

Most of the materials with paid news features were aired on "Inter". Despite the "equality of corrupt opportunities," “Opposition Block” had a definite advantage on "Inter" since its co-owner, Serhiy Lyovochkin runs for the parliament as a candidate from this party. For instance, the program on October 10 showed the commentary of Yuriy Boyko who complains because of the decline in wages for state employees. Similar materials were shown on ICTV and "Ukrayina". On October 11, without any informational reasons, "Inter" showed Oleksandr Vilkul’s statement from "Opposition Block". Throughout the week, other paid news were shown; for instance, they advertised “Sylna Ukrayina”, “Batkivshchyna”, “Zastup”, “Hromadyanska Pozytsiya”, Petro Poroshenko’s Block, and  Radical Party. In many materials, journalists voiced accusations against Ihor Kolomoyskyi. In reports from Donbas, journalists from "Inter", "1+1" and STB used their own judgments.

Several materials with paid news features were noticed in “Vikna” on STB. On October 6, the channel showed a suspicious material about Hennadiy Moskal. Besides comments of the governor of Luhansk region, there are no other comments, and the whole video is based solely around Moskal. On October 7, “Vikna”  with no apparent reason showed five commentaries of Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who heads «Narodnyi Front". There was no justification for airing meaningless comment by Serhiy Tihipko who was titrated as unaffiliated deputy, not as a candidate from “Sylna Ukrayina”. This is also a violation. In the same material, candidate from Petro Poroshenko’s Block, Viktor Chumak was titrated as the chairman of the committee fighting against organized crime.

“Ukrayina” aired four clearly paid materials; all of them were similar to videos on "Inter" about the parties "Batkivshchyna”, “Opposition Block", and communists. In order to agitate voters, guests in the studio were used. On October 6, one of the leaders of "Opposition Block" Oleksandr Vilkul got seven minutes for illegal campaigning during the news program. In addition, “Sobytiya” showed sponsored materials about “Batkivshchyna”, “Hromadyanska Pozytsiya” and Petro Poroshenko’s Block.

"Ukrayina" continues to show sponsored materials in favor of Rinat Akhmetov. For instance, on Tuesday, October 7, there were two paid materials about the channel’s owner in a row. Also, the analysis spotted elements of corporate PR in the coverage of the heating season (the focus on Rinat Akhmetov’s company DTEK) and in the biased material about the conflict around Dnipropetrovsk 34th channel that, alongside “Ukrayina” belongs to Akhmetov’s media group.

During the week, "Inter" had 58 materials with features of paid news, “Ukrayina” had 36, ICTV had 24, "1 +1" had 7, and STB had 4.  5th Channel and First National did not have any materials with paid news features.

Weekly Programs (detailed monitoring)

In the weekly news programs on October 12, there was a relatively small numbers of materials with paid news features. Instead, all of the invited to the studio guests tried to campaign for a particular political party.

Most channels did not have enough time to prepare a full material about the top news – the dismissal of the Minister of Defense Valeriy Heletey since this information appeared very late, practically minutes before the programs were aired.

In ICTV’s material about the trends of the parliamentary campaign, the analysis spotted the elements of the paid news in favor on “Sylna Ukrayina’ since its position was shown from one-sided and positive perspective. Also, the material consists of two comments by the party leader, Serhiy Tihipko. “Fakty tyzhnya” continued the tradition of advertising the ex-President Leonid Kuchma. In the section "Hot Topics of the week", the channel presented protocol information about the meeting of Kuchma with Kazakhstan’s President Nazarbayev. At the same time, the comments of military experts running for the parliament disappeared from the channel; for instance, there were no more comments of Dmytro Tymchuk.

Materials about dividing the spheres of influence in Donbas were chosen as the most important by all of the channels; thus, they were aired first. The only exception was 5th Channel that did not present this information; instead, it focused on the investigation of Ilovaysk tragedy and punishments for those responsible for crimes against activists at Euromaidan. 

"1+1" referred to the statistics of bilateral firing during the armistice. "Inter" focused on the completion of the training done by Russian troops in Rostov region. On "Ukrayina", the anchor just read the news and showed the commentary of the press-officer Vladyslav Selezniov.

Channels continue to analyze the elections campaign. Taking into consideration the lack of bright events, newsrooms had various thematic emphases. "1+1" told the audience about the latest sociological surveys of political forces. 5th Channel produced two videos about the elections; the first one is about the election process in Donbas, and the second one about candidates buying votes of their voters. "Ukrayina" focused on analyzing options of the probable variations of majority and opposition in the new parliament. «Inter” did not cover the topic about the elections.

ICTV, «1 +1" and "Inter" also spoke about anticorruption laws package and analyzed the documents prepared by the deputies. 5th Channel and "Ukrayina" did not cover this topic. 

"TSN. Tyzhden" was special; from one hand, it had an impressive exclusive material by Oleksandr Zahorodnyi from Donetsk airport, but on the other, it had false reports on Putin being seriously ill and the risk of penetration of Ebola virus from Russia to Ukraine.

"Inter" continues to air paid news in favor of Lyashko. Leader of "Radical Party" appears on the channel regularly both in the videos and live where he comments the issues out of his competency.

Materials with features of hidden political advertising:

"TSN. Tyzhden": 1 -" Sieve of lustration "

"Fakty tyzhnia": 1 "The police promises to punish parliamentary candidates who buy votes of their voters, Advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Anton Herashchenko said".

Interviews with the politicians (including the ones in the studio):

"TSN", "1 +1":

- Pavlo Petrenko, the Minister of Justice ("Narodnyi Front");

"Podrobnosti Niedieli", "Inter":

- Yuriy Lutsenko (Petro Poroshenko’s Block);

- Yuriy Hrymchak (Petro Poroshenko’s Block);

- Nestor Shufrych ("Opposition Block");

- Vadim Rabynovych ("Opposition Block");

- Valeriy Khoroshkovskyi ("Sylna Ukrayina");

- Serhiy Tihipko ("Sylna Ukrayina”);

- Olena Bilozerska ("Pravyi sektor");

- Oleh Lyashko (Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party) - twice;

- Yuliya Tymoshenko ("Batkivshchyna");

- Ruslan Koshulynskyi ("Svoboda");

- Anatoliy Hrytsenko ("Hromadyanska Pozytsiya") - twice;

- Oleksandr Kikhtenko, Chairman of Donetsk Regional State Administration ("Syla I chest").

"Fakty tyzhnia», ICTV:

- Volodymyr Hroysman, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine (Petro Poroshenko’s Block);

- Yuliya Tymoshenko ("Batkivshchyna");

- Nestor Shufrych ("Opposition Block").

"Sobitiya Niedieli", "Ukrayina":

- Anatoliy Hrytsenko ("Hromadyanska Pozytsiya");

- Oleh Lyashko (Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party).

Talk shows (detailed monitoring)

Acuity, objectivity and usefulness of "Pravo na vladu" to inform viewers about the true motives and intentions of politicians dropped. To participate in the program on October 9, such politicians were invited: Serhiy Tihipko, deputy, leader of the party “Sylna Ukrayina”; Yuriy Lutsenko, head of the party "Petro Poroshenko’s Block ", the former Minister of the Interior Affairs; Tetyana Chornovol, the candidate from “Narodnyi Front", advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs; Ruslan Koshulynskyi, "Svoboda", the Deputy Speaker of Verkhovna Rada. The role of the voice of "civil society" was performed by journalists of "1+1" – Oleksandr Dubinskyi and Olha Koshelenko and two "core" experts Andriy  Marusov, chairman of Transparency International, and Darya Kolynyuk, executive director of the Center for Combating Corruption.

For the second time in two weeks, Serhiy Tihipko was invited on the program. Leader of "Sylna Ukrayina", as in the previous issue, responded to sharp questions using techniques of half-truths and substitution of concepts. Talk show host allowed the politician to talk using typical clichés and explain the points of his party’s election program. Yuriy Lutsenko, who heads Petro Poroshenko’s Block, also had the opportunity to consistently push political cliches and avoid concrete answers.

In “Chorne Dzerkalo" (October 3), the host Evheniy Kiselev and the newsroom deliberately cultivate the feeling of disgust and rejection of politicians who represent certain political forces. This conclusion encourages the selection of speakers, alternation of live talks, provoking meaningless verbal battles, and uncritical attitude to the lies and manipulations of the participants.

For the second time, “Chorne Dzerkalo" had no representatives of the former Party of Regions, in particular, the "Opposition Block." Journalists also did not invite people from the team of Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who became the object of attack of almost all present political opponents. Instead, preference is given to candidates from the "Radical Party" (Ihor Molyar on September 26, Yaroslav Hodunok on October 3). In addition, the talk show presents the video where Oleh Lyashko interrogates somebody described as a “corrector” from “LNR” who, judging by the events that followed, was unreliable. Participation of experts in the discussion (Oleksandr Paskhaver, Vadym Karasev, Denys Brodskyi, and Kost Bondarenko) was also imbalanced.

 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 of compliance with professional standards in the information services of Ukrainian TV channels was carried by NGO "Telekritika" as a part of the project “Strengthening informational society in Ukraine” supported by Council of Europe. 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 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 Council of Europe.