It is demonstrated by the monitoring conducted by NGO Telekritika within the programme “Strengthening Information Society in Ukraine,” implemented by the Council of Europe and funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe.

The expert team of NGO Telekritika was conducting monitoring of the news broadcasted by “UA: Pershyi” and – for the first time in monitoring history – “Ukrainian Radio” during two weeks, from September 7 to September 11 (the first wave) and from September 21 to September 25 (the second wave).

The main findings for September 2015

• The news broadcasted by “Ukrainian Radio” most of all violate the standards of thought balance and information completeness. For example, 92% of the items violated the standard of balance and 100% of the items violated the standard of completeness during the week from September 7 to September 11. As for the week from September 21 to September 25, the indices became a bit better: there were 83% of the items violating these standards.
• The standard of information completeness was adhered by the journalists of “UA: Pershyi” least of all. 94% of the items violated this standard from September 7 to September 11; 70% of the items violated this standard during the second wave of the monitoring. Apart from that, the journalists preparing news for the channel fail to separate facts from opinions: 69% of the news items featuring the violation of this standard were revealed by the experts during the first wave of the monitoring and 52% were revealed during the second one.
• Most of the materials in the news of “Ukrainian Radio” and “UA: Pershyi” violating the standard of balance are either in favour of the government on the whole or in favour of the President and the prime minister in particular.
• The journalists of these broadcasters often exploit value judgements. It is more typical for the news of “Ukrainian Radio.”