Concealed advertising in printed press rises steeply in February

According to monitoring carried out by the Institute for Mass Information, February saw a sharp increase in commissioned news or “dzhynsa” over the previous month. 26 pieces of material suggesting concealed advertising were recorded as against 10 in January.

The monitoring is carried out of six nationwide publications: Fakty; Segodnya [Today]; “Ekonomicheskiye izvestia”; Ukrainsky Tyzhden [Ukrainian Week]; Kommentari; Korrespondent.

The worst offender (over 20 items) was Fakty; 4 were found in Komentari and 2 in Ekonomicheskiye izvestia. None were found in the other publicatons.

Most commissioned material in fact was of an economic nature, with only 4 being political. Of these 4, two gave coverage to the activities of MP Natalia Korolevska who was expelled from the opposition BYUT faction this month, officially because of commissioned material.

Institute for Mass Information