According to the monitoring by the Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP), 50% of all negative news concerning those in power were about the Constitutional Court, followed by 19% for local governments. In May, President Viktor Yanykovych was mentioned in 33% of negative news about those in power, while the National Bank and Prosecutor’s Office accounted for 33% and 29% in April.
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Ironic and negative assessments most often addressed the government and the Communist Party. In June, they were mostly focused on the opposition, while in May, April, March and February the opposition and the Party of Regions got equal amount of negative coverage.
41% of all mentions of politicians concern the Party of Regions’s MPs, followed by Batkivshchyna’s with 17% and UDAR with 5%.
Overall, top TV channels devoted 66% of their coverage to those in power and 24% to the opposition in September, compared to 56% versus 33% in April and 51% versus 44% in March.
The analysis of eight top Ukrainian TV channels in September 2013 is part of the ongoing media monitoring by the International Charity Fund “Academy of Ukrainian Press”. The monitoring started in 2002.
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The monitoring involved researchers from the Sociology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences. It focused on prime-time news of eight top TV channels in Ukraine, including Inter, 1+1, Novy Kanal (New Channel), Ukraina, STB, ICTV, Pershyi Natsionalnyi (First National) and TVi.