Telegram channels in the South violate standards the most in times of war

The Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy conducted a study of popular telegram channels and found that telegram channels in the South were the worst at adhering to professional standards in covering information.

This is stated in the study.

According to the results of the monitoring, which covered the period from November 25 to December 1, 2024, several serious problems were identified in the content published by these channels. They received 6.6 points out of 12 possible for professional standards.

One of the main problems was content without clear references to sources. Many posts on the channels in the South of Ukraine contained phrases such as "we are being written to", "something is happening" or "we are being told", which meant that there was no verified information and anonymous sources were used. During the Great War, this became a serious problem, as people often received unverified information without proper argumentation.

Another important problem was the use of improperly labeled advertising. Many telegram channels did not separate advertising posts from news stories. For example, on channels from the southern regions of Ukraine, such as "News of Mykolaiv", "Odesa as it is" and "Overheard Odesa", up to 10% of posts contained advertising content that was not properly labeled. Mostly, they advertised supermarkets, casinos, online stores, as well as bank services and cryptocurrency. This violated ethical standards of journalism, as it mixed news with commercial interests.

Several channels in the South of Ukraine also recorded cases of spreading pro-Russian messages. For example, Odesa INFO, Trukha Krym, and Kh.viy Kherson reprinted information without the official position of the Ukrainian side and quoted sources controlled by the occupiers, which casts doubt on the neutrality and objectivity of these resources.

The most common news item in the region was rocket attacks on populated areas. Some channels, ignoring the rule of "three-hour silence," reported about it almost immediately after the "arrival". They partially covered the same topic with references to videos and photos from eyewitnesses. But also without specific references to sources. Other topics were covered in the same manner.

On the telegram channels of the South, the vast majority of publications were about the war - 43%. Most of all on the Kherson Telegram channel - 71%. Odesa INFO and Trukha Krym also devoted half or more than half of their content to this topic. As for the Odesa channel, this is due to the shelling of the city by the Russian occupiers. The content of the Crimean resource is also mainly about the shelling, but it also reported on the activities of the Resistance Movement operating on the peninsula. The Kherson channel also wrote about the Atesh military guerrilla movement.

At the same time, these channels practically did not cover important topics such as sports, education, local reforms, or religious life. This shows that the content in the South was often limited to military topics and urgent life support issues, such as constant power and water outages, also covered without proper verification.

The study also revealed cases of widespread negative attitudes toward people in uniform. In particular, channels from the South sometimes published content that ridiculed or discredited the military. For example, one of the videos of the "Overheard in Odesa" channel showed a man in civilian clothes running away from a military man and captioned the post as "Tom and Jerry: the Izmail version", which created a negative perception of the military among citizens.

Андрій Колісніченко