Chernovetsky bought the most news coverage in April
The initiative “Were not for sale!” has published the results of its monitoring of main television channels in April. The present Mayor of Kyiv Leonid Chernovetsky, who is standing for office again in pre-term elections, featured most often in material found to show infringements of the standards of topicality, significance and balanced presentation, and yet was shown on the main news broadcasts on nationwide television.
This was the conclusion reached by independent experts: Natalya Ligachova, Chief Editor of “Telekritika”, Victoria Syumar from the Institute for Mass Information, Taras Shevchenko from the Media Law Institute and Vitaly Maximov from the publication “Dyelo” [“Business”
Of 42 items found to breach the above-mentioned standards, 11 involved Chernovetsky.
Victoria Syumar comments that their worst predictions had proved accurate. “Virtually everything about the elections for Kyiv Mayor shown on central television channels was broadcast for money. A record was set for the largest number of paid items.”
Natalya Ligachova adds that according to “Telekritikas” information, there is corruption which the monitoring does not pick up. “They pay not just for showing positive features, but for not showing negative.. Another service offered by television channels is blocking information about competitors.”
The team of experts also named the channel which had presented the most paid material – “Era” and the presenter – Polishchuk who had read the most.
Taras Shevchenko pointed out that there was a high likelihood that this coverage would influence the outcome of the elections, making them neither democratic nor fair.
Vitaly Maximov spoke of a vicious circle in which items are shown because theyre paid for and paid for before because otherwise they dont show them.
The initiative “Were not for sale!” began in early November 2007 with a statement issued by dozens of television presenters, editors and journalists pledging to boycott any news material prepared to order.
The Initiative carries out daily monitoring of the news broadcasts on the main nationwide channels
Based on information at www.telekritika.kiev.ua