INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS IN REGIONAL MEDIA IN UKRAINE

Two years into the IDPs crisis, media continue to violate journalistic standards, when covering the displaced. Coverage of IDPs increased slightly in June, yet mostly due to statements issued by the authorities. Some media improved their reporting on human stories in a follow-up to production workshops. These are initial findings of the regional media monitoring presented today.

Kyiv, 14 July 2016 - The Association Spilnyi Prostir and MEMO 98, supported by the European Union, presented results of the third monitoring wave, concerning the coverage of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in the local media. The monitoring is a part of the Regional Voices project implemented by a media consortium led by the Thomson Foundation.

“We all know people who have been displaced by the conflict, but long term solutions to their needs and challenges remain. Part of finding the answers starts with the media asking questions, holding the authorities to account and providing balanced assessments of the situation at a local and national level," said Helga Pender, the EU Sector Manager for Crisis Response. "That’s why the EU continues to support regional media in their attempts to provide impartial reporting on challenges and opportunities for the displaced integrating into new communities across Ukraine, highlighting problems in a balanced way before rumour distorts the picture."

The monitoring took place on 1 – 14 June, with a sample that consists of a total of 203 monitored media (50 TV channels, 66 print media and 87 online media outlets) in 24 regions of Ukraine divided into four parts (North/Centre, South, East, West). Four regional reports and a comparative analysis of this wave as well as from two previous periods from October and February are available at http://regionalvoices.eu/en/monitoring

“In comparison with the second monitoring period, regional media coverage of IDPs slightly increased. Yet, there still was a lack of IDP-related stories in general. Mostly, the coverage was rather superficial or within the context of other topics, with a short supply of analytical or investigative approach”, said Lesya Yaroshenko of the Association Spilnyi Prostir. “Most notably, journalists tended to passively present statements of authorities without questioning or verifying them.”

“Overall, the most of the media still appear to seek an editorial policy how to present IDPs issues from a more contextual perspective, that would aim for a long-term vision on how to resolve IDPs problem”, said Ivan Godársky of MEMO 98. “Noteworthy, we noticed increase of the local independent reporting based on own findings rather than on national sources. In addition, certain media regularly focused on human side of IDP stories in a follow-up to production trainings conducted by the Regional Voices project.”

A series of trainings that are part of the project are designed for regional media to strengthen their reporting ability by enhancing independence and quality of content as well as by strengthening their access to networks, both within Ukraine and beyond its borders, more on the website regionalvoices.eu

The next monitoring reports will cover two weeks of October and will be published in November. For more information on the monitoring results, please contact Lesya Yaroshenko at ukrainianmonitor@gmail.com.

This project is funded by the EU

Please see the summary report in PDF here: Report