StopFake joined the coalition of civic organizations that supported independent monitoring of coverage of the presidential election in Ukraine with the support of the Council of Europe projects*. Quantitative and qualitative monitoring is carried out daily and covers the main media and social networks. The coalition also included the “Ukrainian Commission on Journalism Ethics”, “Human Rights Platform”, “Ukrainian Media and Communications Institute”.
The Council of Europe experts have developed a methodology to monitor the observance of the provisions of the electoral legislation of Ukraine, journalistic standards and election coverage standards.
“The main objective is to inform the public about the behavior of the media and social networks during the election campaign and to stimulate discussion on the objectivity and quality of their work on election coverage, – said Rasto Kuzhel, an international expert of the Council of Europe, at a press conference on January 23. – I hope that monitoring will provide a constructive feedback for journalists who understand the importance of these elections and their crucial role in this process.”
In particular, during the monitoring, the appearance of Russian propaganda narratives in the Ukrainian media and in the rhetoric of the most popular candidates and opinion leaders will be analyzed. Among them are such narratives as discrediting of the Ukrainian Army, depiction of Ukraine as a “failed state,” territorial disintegration of Ukraine, and so on.
Presidential and parliamentary elections will be held in Ukraine in 2019. In particular, the first round of presidential elections is scheduled for March 31.
*Monitoring is carried out by a coalition of public organizations – Ukrainian Commission on Journalism Ethics, Human Rights Platform, Ukrainian Media and Communications Institute and StopFake with the support of the Council of Europe projects “Supporting transparency, inclusiveness and integrity of electoral practice in Ukraine” and “Strengthening freedom of media, access to information and reinforcing public broadcasting system in Ukraine”, which are implemented within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2018-2021. The interim and final reports will be prepared in accordance with the monitoring results.
