Ukraine Media Sustainability Index (MSI)
April 7, 2013
About the MSI
IREX designed the MSI to measure the strength and viability of any country’s media sector. The MSI considers all the factors that contribute to a media system—the quality of journalism, effectiveness of management, the legal environment supporting freedom of the press, and more—to arrive at scores on a scale ranging between 0 and 4. These scores represent the strength of the media sector components and can be analyzed over time to chart progress (or regression) within a country. Additionally, countries or regions may be compared to one another. IREX currently conducts the MSI in 80 countries, and IREX currently conducts the MSI in 80 countries, and produced the first Europe & Eurasia MSI in 2001.
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Download the Complete Ukraine MSI Chapter (PDF): 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006/7 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001
MSI Ukraine - 2013 Introduction
Overall Country Score: 1.72
Key events in Ukraine during 2012 included the European Soccer Championship in June and the parliamentary elections in October. OSCE observers concluded that the elections were characterized by the lack of a level playing field, the abuse of state resources, the lack of transparency of campaign and party financing, and the lack of balanced media coverage. Freedom House noted the continued and selective persecution of political opponents (opposition leaders Yulia Tymoshenko and Yuriy Lutsenko are still jailed with no signs of release) and named growing corruption as Ukraine’s biggest challenge. Ukraine discussed further economic integration and vacillated between association and free trade with the EU.
“This year was determined by the elections, in them, the Ukrainian media failed from a professional point of view,” said Oleg Khomenok, panelist and senior media adviser for the Internews Network. “They failed the test of money, prioritizing at the expense of professional standards and public service. In addition, this was probably an experiment in preparation for the 2015 presidential elections.”
The Ukrainian economy was marked by recession, controversy about the national currency exchange rate peg, continued lack of transparency in the energy sector, and inaction on much-needed reforms. Despite Ukraine’s ranking of 137th place in the World Bank’s Doing Business ratings (up 15 places from the previous year), the Bank rates the general investment climate as “stably unfavorable” due to fiscal pressures and weak rule of law.
At the end of 2012, media-support organizations emphasized a threefold increase in the number of attacks on journalists, growing sums demanded for compensation by those suing for libel, instances of direct political censorship, and various other pressures in national and regional media. Despite this, some journalists and public-awareness campaigns to decriminalize libel have been hailed as positive achievements. Media monitoring conducted by four media organizations documented a startling increase in the instances of paid content, including news, opinions, and consumer stories. During the campaign, such content more than doubled in print and Internet media, compared with the beginning of 2012, and amounted to 50-60 percent of regional television news. All political parties (the ruling party, Communists, Ukraina—Vpered, the United Opposition, and independent candidates) contributed by placing paid content, locally called jeansa. While elections’ compliance with international standards has improved, the balance and transparency of the information presented remains problematic.
The panelists downgraded several objectives in 2012, compared with the previous year, due to a number of factors. These included the record-setting number of attacks on journalists and the absence of subsequent prosecution, attempts to criminalize libel, marginalization of some regional channels from airing on certain cable networks, media censorship in certain parts of the country, and widespread bribery in the media during the election cycle.
