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Hot Media Sector News
Public Broadcasting among Key Topics at Ukraine Reform Conference in Toronto
July 4 – The state secretary of the Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine, Artem Bidenko, told those attending the third annual Ukraine Reform Conference held on July 2-4, 2019 in Toronto, Canada, that the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine plays an important role for civil society development in promoting dialogue between state institutions and civil society actors.
“One of the key elements of the fight with disinformation is the creation of effective institutions supporting independent media,” Bidenko said. “The public broadcasting company is a priority in this regard, because it performs multiple functions beyond just one of informing. This is an issue of values that shape society and is one of the aims of information policy in Ukraine,” Bidenko continued.
Roman Vybranovsky, head of communications for the Ukraine Crisis Media Center, said in his speech at the same conference that there is a typical belief among Ukrainians that the key feature of Ukraine’s media is their dependency on owners and oligarchs. “The latest research of the Democratic Initiatives Foundation (DIF) showed that 80% of journalists consider dependency on owners to be the biggest problem,” Vybranovsky said. “The research also showed that 53% of journalists consider the low professional level of their colleagues to be an issue as well. Even independent journalists are not able to function properly in the democratic society if they lack professionalism,” according to Vybranovsky. “UA:PBC is becoming truly independent thanks to the implementation of public broadcasting reform. But there is a long road ahead for this company to become truly professional and defend democratic governance in Ukraine…because democracy is about people’s influence on policy-making, and journalists are people who shape demands from society.”
More on Detector Media in Ukrainian.
Media for a Conscious Choice Movement Issues Statement Urging Ukraine’s Leaders to Prevent Use of TV Channels for Pro-Kremlin Propaganda
July 3 – The Media for a Conscious Choice movement relayed a statement by former ZIK TV employees, Conscious Choice member groups, and a group of media and civil society NGOs to Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland and Council of Europe Deputy Secretary General Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni during the third annual Ukraine Reform Conference in Toronto, according to Detector Media deputy editor-in-chief and UA:PBC supervisory board chair Svitlana Ostapa, who attended the conference.
In their statement, journalists, activists, and media experts urged the leadership of Ukraine and law enforcement agencies to prevent the use of Ukrainian TV channels to promote a pro-Kremlin propaganda and the creeping occupation of Ukraine’s media space by pro-Russian channels. The authors reminded readers that ZIK TV channel and its news agency were officially purchased by Taras Kozak, a close ally and business partner of Victor Medvedchuk, a pro-Russian politician who leads the Opposition Platform - For Life party. ZIK is the third TV channel purchased by Kozak this year, after he purchased 112 Ukraine and NewsOne TV channels. "Together with Inter TV channel, which is under control of the other founders of the pro-Russian party Opposition Platform - For Life, these broadcasters are a powerful resource, and their owners are discussing the possibility of acquiring other assets," the statement read.
"Victor Medvedchuk and his political forces do not hide their intention to return Ukraine to Russia’s sphere of political and economic influence. Media resources are used as an instrument to put pressure on state authorities and to form public opinion. The image of Medvedchuk as a "peacemaker" and an indispensable mediator between Ukraine and Russia is largely created by, funded by, or promoted by media controlled by Opposition Platform. Detector Media’s media monitoring reports confirm that 112 Ukraine and NewsOne TV channels regularly reproduce the propaganda messages of the Russian federal media," the statement continued.
Note: The Media for a Conscious Choice movement was launched on February 5, 2019, and is designed to provide citizens with the chance to elect the president and parliament on the basis of complete, reliable and objective information in the media. Leading Ukrainian media - TV channels, radio stations, print and online outlets, as well as media NGOs -are participating in the movement. The first signatories of the Movement memorandum were UA: Pershy, Ukrainian Radio, Hromadske Radio, Ukrinform, Interfax-Ukraine, Liga.net, Mirror of the Week, Novoe Vremya, Cenzor.Net, Channel 5, Ukrainian Week, Opinion, a number of regional media, NGOs, Independent Media Council, Detector Media, Institute of Mass Information, Internews Ukraine, Center for Democracy and the Rule of Law, Suspilnist Foundation, Independent Association of Broadcasters, Donetsk Institute of Information, Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy, Center for Human Rights Zmina, Regional Press Development Institute and other organizations, and individual journalists – over 70 signatories in total.
More on Detector Media in Ukrainian.
President’s Press Secretary Refuses to Testify at General Prosecutor’s Office
July 3 – Yulia Mendel, press secretary of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, arrived for questioning at the General Prosecutor's Office (GPU) of Ukraine on July 1 but refused to testify, according to "theBabel" online resource, with reference to the Prosecutor's Office..
The GPU noted on its Facebook page that Mendel was summoned for questioning as a witness to clarify her public statements in the “Right for Power” political talk show on 1+1 TV channel on June 6. During that talk show, Mendel said there were occasional cases when Ukrainian military in Donbas, responding to provocations from pro-Russian troops, shot at civilian sites and that this resulted in civilian deaths. The GPU noted that Mendel's statements about the shootings into residential buildings could be used by Russia in the information war against Ukraine.
"During the interrogation, Mendel refused to testify, would not indicate the source of information she distributed about these shootings, and noted that the questioning itself was politicized and could be used against her. Questions were asked that did not concern her personal life but were aimed at clarifying her statements as a public official authorized to make official statements on behalf of the president," the GPU stated.
More on Detector Media in Ukrainian.
Ukraine and Canada to Cooperate in Film Production
July 2 – The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of Canada signed an agreement on joint film production at the third annual Ukraine Reform Conference held in Toronto, Canada from July 2 to July 4.
Ukraine’s Minister of Culture, Yevhen Nishchuk, who signed the agreement for Ukraine, said: “Today we are witnessing a key event – it will kick-start cooperation between Ukraine and Canada in the field of joint audio-visual production. We have opened the path for cooperation between cinematographers of our countries to create a product that, I believe, will be interesting not only to the citizens of Ukraine and Canada, but also enrich the world’s culture and gain recognition among the international community. I call on all artists and filmmakers who have been waiting for this Agreement for a number of years, to start planning activities on joint projects. I also would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Ukrainian and Canadian professionals who made an effort to carefully study and prepare this agreement.”
Note: The preparatory work to sign the bilateral agreement on the joint production of audio-visual content between Ukraine and Canada lasted more than a year and a half. The agreement now allows the two countries to co-produce quality films for both Ukrainian and Canadian audiences.
More on the website of Ukrainian State Film Agency in Ukrainian.
Media Program in Ukraine Partners’ Activities
IMI finds Increase in Hidden Advertising before Parliamentary Elections
July 3 – In the run-up to the pre-term parliamentary elections, the volume of jeansa (hidden advertising) appearing in national online media grew by 22%, compared to the same period during the presidential election race earlier this year, according to the Institute of Mass Information (IMI), which found 320 publications with pre-paid political content in 13 popular internet media in its June 24 to 28 monitoring. The total sample for this monitoring was more than 17,000 news pieces; 4% of these publications were marked as advertising, though this marking did not comply with the Law of Ukraine On Advertising because the ads were placed in the "News", "Company News", and "Elections" sections of these media.
The largest number of jeansa stories was found on the website of 112 Channel (98 pieces during five days of monitoring); 93% of these stories supported the “Opposition Platform - For Life” party and its representatives.
Over the course of the monitoring period, the websites of Znaj.ua and NewsOne published 48 jeansa stories each. NewsOne’s website mostly promoted the "Opposition Platform - For Life" party, while Znaj.ua mostly supported President Zelenskyy and his "Servant of the People" party, Anatoliy Hrytsenko and his “Public Position” party, and the "Opposition Platform - For Life" party.
No jeansa was found in Ukrainska Pravda, Novoe Vremya or Liga websites.
More on the website of the Institute of Mass Information in Ukrainian.
TrollessUA Project of Internews Ukraine Protects Facebook Users from Disinformation
July 3 - Internews Ukraine (IUA), with the help of Trolless and Internews in Moldova, launched the TrollessUa initiative, aimed at detecting and blocking trolls operating in the Ukrainian information space on Facebook. IUA and the Moldovan Trolless team will train volunteers to serve as “cyber elves” and identify suspicious accounts. The elves will focus on Facebook profiles that share fake stories, incite enmity and use hate speech. IUA will develop a database and plug-in for Google Chrome on the basis of open source software developed by the Trolless project in Moldova; it will help identify trolls operating in Ukraine and provide the basis for reporting suspicious accounts to Facebook for their eventual removal.
The activities were designed as a result of a meeting of Internews Ukraine and the Moldovan group Trolless that was organized by Internews Network. Internews Ukraine proposed kick-starting a Ukrainian version of Trolless – TrollesUA – to counter disinformation, raise awareness of suspicious online behavior among online Ukrainian users, and identify malign actors (trolls) operating in the Ukrainian online space, especially on Facebook, which became the dominant social media in Ukraine after the Government of Ukraine blocked access to the Russian social media platforms Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki on May 16, 2017.
Note: In January 2018, the Moldovan group Trolless created a platform to identify fake social network profiles. One of the main goals of the platform was to instruct internet users on how to spot fake profiles and fight trolls. About two weeks before the February 24th, 2019 scheduled parliamentary elections in Moldova, Facebook removed 168 Facebook accounts, 28 Facebook pages and eight Instagram accounts active in the country, for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” - spreading fake and manipulative information.
Can Facebook be Effective in Counteracting Hate Speech and Disinformation?
July 2 – Internews Ukraine (IUA) and the Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine organized a joint roundtable at Ukrinform information agency in Kyiv entitled “Can Facebook be Effective in Counteracting Hate Speech and Disinformation?”
According to Vitaliy Moroz, an Internews Ukraine program manager, Facebook closed 2.1 billion fake accounts worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2018, and 2.2 billion in the first quarter of 2019. “Since Ukraine has 13-14 million Facebook users, it is not a big player on the global Facebook market, however, Ukraine needs legislation to be protected from disinformation, especially during the election campaigns,” Moroz added.
Dmytro Zolotukhin, Deputy Minister of Information Policy, spoke about his Ministry’s communications with Facebook and outlined the key challenges. "I see that there are two key issues with the social network policy in terms of content…The first is that there are no responses to content that is harmful to Ukraine (hate speech and disinformation). The second one is that Facebook sometimes deletes or bans the content of Ukrainian users who do not deserve it, in our opinion. For example, volunteer fighters or Ukrainian journalists," Zolotukhin said.
Ihor Rozkladay, a lawyer with the Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM), spoke about the possibility of interaction between civil society and Facebook. In his opinion, it is necessary to establish rules and reach agreements that will be beneficial for Ukrainians and Facebook. Rozkladay informed the participants that the previous week, at a conference in Berlin, Facebook reported on its plans to launch a new mechanism in 2019 to protect Facebook users from harmful content. According to Rozkladay, Facebook will establish an external body, consisting of 40 people from all over the world, which will raise issues regarding Facebook rules in different countries, as necessary.
More at Ukrinform site in Ukrainian.
Press Conference in Kharkiv addresses Professional Development for Local Police
July 3 – The Kharkiv Press Club hosted a press conference at its Media Hub Kharkiv where Dmytro Shvets, the rector of the Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs, and Yuriy Chumak, the electoral Ombudsman of OPORA Civic Network, spoke about the ongoing training for personnel of the National Police in Kharkiv region within the framework of police reform in Ukraine. The speakers talked about the important role of law enforcement institutions in holding honest and peaceful elections. In their view, the democratic presidential election campaign that took place earlier in the year was partly the result of professional work of the police, among other factors.
According to Shvets and Chumak, police demonstrated political impartiality and professionalism last spring and are trusted by residents of Kharkiv region (based on their opinion) now that the parliamentary election campaign is underway. The speakers called on educational institutions and civil society organizations to help improve the skills and knowledge of police about their role during elections. They noted that this is already happening, as the Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs and OPORA civil network are holding joint trainings for the police to prepare them for the elections.
iVote Online Platform Raises Voter Awareness of Political Party Platforms
July 2 – The Institute of Political Information (IPI) in Odesa launched an upgraded IVote platform (ivote.com.ua) designed to help voters familiarize themselves with political party platforms during the parliamentary election campaign.
The platform contains a quiz and explanatory articles to help voters learn about the official approaches of parties to solving important social and political issues. The iVote quiz correlates user responses on what’s important to them with the official positions of the political parties declared in their election platforms registered by the Central Election Commission (CEC). A team of programmers and experts developed an algorithm for calculating the similarities of a user’s preferences to a certain party’s platform. iVote also provides quotes from the official political party platforms and compares them with the public statements of the parties’ politicians running for parliament.
The platform works for all browsers and is available on Facebook. A mobile version is available for Android Chrome and iOS Safari, as well as a Telegram bot @i_vote_bot. iVote’s developers guarantee users’ anonymity; the quiz does not collect any personal data and users do not need to register to take the quiz.
The purpose of iVote is to raise awareness of the electoral process and understanding of the political parties’ platforms. IPI urges citizens to rely on their own judgement, analyze the results of the quiz themselves, and make an informed choice on election day.
Press Conference in Ternopil Addresses Parliamentary Election Process
July 2 – The Ternopil Press Club (TPC) announced at a press conference in Ternopil that 12 public organizations of the Ternopil region have created a coalition "For Transparent and Fair Elections" which will see long-term and short-term observers monitor the parliamentary elections in Ternopil region. These observers will monitor the election campaign and the election process and inform local residents about any violations they witness.
Representatives of the coalition noted at the press conference that most of the problems during the election process are connected with the voter register, the main one being that many young voters aged 18 and 19 have been left off the voter lists. The next most common violations are the placement of political advertising in media without proper marking and the posting of political posters on the facades of buildings throughout the city.
Media Discussion in Lviv: Countering Russian Influence on Ukraine’s Information Environment
June 27 - The Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy organized the media discussion "How to Limit the Information Impact of "Servants of Moscow" in Ukraine" at the Lviv Press Club (LPC). The discussion attracted 18 participants, among whom were the editors-in-chief of national and local outlets, media portals, information agencies, and media experts.
The discussion tackled the issues of:
- jeansa,
- pro-Russian messages,
- fakes and propaganda in regional media, and
- journalists’ relationships with media owners and authorities (ZIK TV channel’s recent purchase was discussed).
The participants also considered why Ukraine’s information landscape remains unprotected six years after the war in the East of Ukraine began, and what can be done to improve the situation. A media lawyer with the Regional Press Development Institute, Liudmyla Pankratova, said: “The Criminal Code of Ukraine does not determine what “general propaganda” or “Russian propaganda” are, and thus does not stipulate any criminal liability for that. We have to apply international conventions in these cases. It would be reasonable to provide liability for propaganda within the Administrative Code.”
The participants came to the conclusion that political will, legislative tools, media self-regulation and media literacy efforts can counter Russia’s occupation of Ukraine’s information landscape. Also, that it is the job of the National Security and Defence Council, the Security Service of Ukraine and the National TV and Radio Council to protect the information landscape of Ukraine.
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