On 27 November, the online presentation and discussion on the final monitoring findings of the media coverage of the local electoral process in Ukraine took place. The monitoring was carried out during 5 September - 25 October and encompassed 12 regions of Ukraine. It was focused on 33 local online media and Facebook pages/profiles of a number of subjects of the local electoral process. The monitoring was conducted by a coalition of CSOs - Journalism Ethics Commission, «Human Rights Platform», «Ukrainian Institute of Media and Communication», «StopFake» (Ukraine) and Association «Women in Media» - with the support of the Project «EU and Council of Europe working together to support freedom of media in Ukraine.

The aim of the monitoring was to provide the media, participants of the electoral process, the international community and citizens with the criteria for assessing the fairness of coverage of the electoral process; reduce the negative impact of disinformation and propaganda; and contribute to a fairer and more impartial media coverage.

The monitoring showed that the topic «Elections» was not the top one in the local media, there was a lack of educational materials, but the paid materials "jeansa" in the publications were not rare. On social networks, there was a competition between information messages of local political teams and national-level parties. Some political forces broadcast messages of the Kremlin. The media also did not follow gender parity.

Diana Dutsyk, Council of Europe consultant and Executive Director of the CSO «Ukrainian Institute of Media and Communication», said: “The results of the monitoring showed that topic «Elections» was not the main one, despite the active character of the local electoral campaign. Out of the 43,056 news items analyzed during the monitoring period in 33 regional online media, only 2,462 (or 5.72%) were devoted to the topic «Elections». Obviously, this could affect the low voter turnout on the election day (along with other factors, such as a pandemic). In general, local elections coverage was not very informative for citizens, there was a lack of educational materials and materials with critical analysis of the programs of subjects of the electoral process, while there was an excess of materials with signs of being paid, or "jeansa". However, it should be emphasized that not always the one who had actively paid for "jeansa" in the media, won the election. Therefore, it is worth considering whether it is appropriate to use such dishonest methods of struggle”.

Diana Dutsyk also added that regional media rarely adhered to the principle of pluralism and objective, impartial and balanced representation of political forces. Citizens did have a lack of information about the subjects of the electoral process (both parties and individual candidates). There are two political forces that received the most attention from the local online media: Party "Servant of People'' (the party had a clear range of tones: positive, neutral and negative coverage) and "Batkivshchyna" (the tone is more positive). Among the candidates for the position of mayor, the current mayor of Kyiv, Vitaliy Klichko, received the most coverage.

"The final report includes the findings which cover the day of silence and E-day on 25 October 2020. Unfortunately, the list of violations mentioned in the interim reports (campaigning without proper indications, publication of sociology lacking necessary details, unbalanced coverage of parties) was added with those related to this period. Namely, the dissemination of exit polls data before the closing of polling stations as well as campaigning, both in online media and on social networks”, said Oleksandr Burmahin, Council of Europe consultant and executive director of the SCO «Human Rights Platform».

The main feature of the campaign on  Facebook is the competition of proposals of local political teams and candidates for mayors with brands and messages of national parties. Often the latter went beyond the powers of locally elected officials and looked like a "rehearsal" of parliamentary elections. This was emphasized by Olga Yurkova, the Council of Europe expert, co-founder of the StopFake project.

"The majority of parties and their leaders tried to discredit their opponents and used offensive language. Some theses resonated with the Russian propaganda and disinformation. Parties disseminated educational content on how to use new ballots or legislative innovations. But almost none clarified the deeper issues of conscious choice. The majority of parties and candidates did not comply with the day of silence requirements", Olga Yurkova said.

According to Olga Yurkova, the monitoring team observed several trends of possible external information influences, namely:

• Some media outlets in a number of news items on Russia's aggression in Donbas reported the "versions of the parties to the conflict", representing Ukraine as "a party" on one side, and the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" and "Luhansk People's Republic" on the other, without mentioning aggression of the Russian Federation;
• The Kremlin's propaganda narratives were voiced in the news by party speakers, mostly from the «Opposition Platform - For Life» and included: "external governance of Ukraine", discrediting the Ukrainian government, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, reforms and the government, legitimizing the occupation of the Crimea, "conspiracy theories" about secret Pentagon biolabs in Ukraine, and imposing the Russian vaccine against COVID-19;
• Some publications actively disseminated the news from the territories which are not under control of the Ukrainian government. They portrayed the "peaceful life" of the region. It coincided with the narrative of legitimizing the occupation of Donbas.

According to Yelyzaveta Kuzmenko, Council of Europe expert and Head of the CSO «Association «Women in the Media», women received only 2,137 mentions or 12%, while men received 9,725 mentions or 57% of media attention in the coverage of local electoral process by regional media. At the same time, the topic of "Gender Equality in Politics" was among the three least discussed, along with the topics of "National Minorities" and "Crimea". In particular, only 37 articles or 0.09% out of the total 43,066 materials analyzed were devoted to increased women's political participation.

"Journalists and editorial offices have to cover the activities of candidates and their programs as widely as possible, regardless of gender. It is also important to implement educational and training strategies, as well as to create tools for journalists and other media professionals to recognize sexism, promote parity and non-stereotypical portrayal of women and men in the media", underlined Yelyzaveta Kuzmenko.

«We appreciate a lot the efficient work of the coalition of civil society organisations consisting of Journalism Ethics Commission, “Human Rights Platform”, “Ukrainian Institute of media and communication”, “StopFake”, “Association “Women in Media” as well as media monitoring team of analysts and twenty monitoring specialists who collected data for the monitoring. We also appreciate the work of the Journalism Ethics Commission that adopted the decisions based on the violations detected during the monitoring», - mentioned Galyna Smirnova, Senior Officer of the Project “European Union and Council of Europe working together to support freedom of media in Ukraine”.

As a result of the monitoring, the team developed a list of conclusions and recommendations to advocate for important changes and improvements in the coverage in the media of further elections.

Thus, here are the recommendations of the media monitoring analysts:

• update electoral legislation and introduce the regulation of the Internet during elections, both in terms of campaigning and provision of information, and in terms of monitoring the expenditure of electoral funds for such activities, and especially - funds from other sources, other countries;
• provide for a system of adequate and effective sanctions for violations of electoral legislation in the field of pre-electoral campaigning, informing voters and coverage of the electoral process, including in the Internet;
• in terms of gender equality - to improve the rules of electoral legislation, in particular to provide definitions of certain concepts and terms, such as "sexism";
• to the subjects of the electoral process when campaigning on social networks - to focus on their own position and on program points which are about the important aspects of life in certain community, to raise awareness of the audience about how the mechanism of local elections works;
• conduct systematic communication with voters not only before the elections, but also in the period between elections;
• not to use hate speech;
• increase the level of transparency of the campaign on social networks: create public pages instead of private profiles, limit the number of accounts, conduct consistent communication;
• not to campaign on the day of silence and election day;
• to increase journalists' knowledge of fact-checking and how propaganda and external information influences work;
• clearly separate political advertising/campaigning materials and information and analytical materials;
• to extend the genre palette of materials on the electoral topic, to carry out educational and explanatory work in the media on election procedures and voting mechanisms;
• cover the activities of candidates and their programs as widely as possible, regardless of their gender, and ensure equal and impartial treatment;
• provide a balanced and informed views and opinions of both female and male candidates. In addition, make efforts for a balanced representation and meaningful participation of women as commentators and experts;
• use gender sensitive language (feminitives).

Reference information:

The project "The European Union and the Council of Europe work together to support media freedom in Ukraine", funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe, aims to strengthen the role of the media, their freedom and safety. Follow the Project updates on Facebook.

For additional information, please contact Oksana Totovytska: +380632617405, [email protected]