The role of the media

There are around 40 000 journalists in Ukraine, 23 000 printed media of which 10 000 reaches a national or an international public. The number of radio- and TV-stations amount to 1 200. The media landscape is in other words enormous and difficult to overview.

The media has played an important role during the political change of the last years. Today, the media remains a vital instrument to ensure that citizens get the necessary facts and information that will allow them to make conscious choices.
During the last years, Ukraine has witnessed an increasing freedom of the press. Balanced reporting, presenting several points of views, is more frequent. On the other hand, there are still many obstacles to pass before freedom of press can develop further. Some of those are:

• The level of professionalism is still low among the majority of journalists.
• The system of paying media and even journalists for publishing material on editorial space is still very frequent.
• The majority of journalists don’t perceive themselves as professionals whose mission is primarily to investigate abuse of power. This view is equal among many civil servants.