14:15 10.04.2019

Monitoring of Ukraine's presidential campaign covering, conducted with CoE support, shows influence of candidates, parties on media

2 min read

An independent monitoring conducted with the support of the Council of Europe showed the influence of the owners of commercial media on the content when covering the election campaign in Ukraine, while the public broadcaster received a positive assessment of its work, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine Мårten Ehnberg said.

Independent monitoring of the coverage of the presidential campaign, which was also conducted with the support of the Council of Europe, showed that despite the diversity of the media environment in Ukraine, the majority of commercial media are divided into relevant political spheres and remain under the powerful influence of their owners, said Enberg during presentation of the Council of Europe expert report on the financing system of the Public Broadcaster in Ukraine in Kyiv on Wednesday.

He stressed that there is a serious influence on the media from candidates and political parties.

The head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine added that experts positively evaluated the Facebook page of public broadcasting. According to him, in particular, there was a positive motivation of citizens to check themselves in the voter lists, to take part in the voting.

The new talk show, which is called "Countdown" also received a positive assessment of experts, he stressed.

At the same time, Enberg noted that the public broadcaster's capacities in covering the election campaign should improve.

An independent public broadcaster is extremely important for a balanced political debate during the election campaign, and we understand this very well now when it comes to potential debates of candidates on public broadcasting TV channels. One of the main tasks of a public broadcaster should be promoting and increasing the interest of citizens in public affairs, candidates' programs, and alternative opinions, he said.

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