On 10-14 December 2018, training on media monitoring during elections was conducted for 20 motivated civic activists in Kyiv, Ukraine. The training was designed around the media monitoring methodology developed by the Council of Europe experts specifically for civil society organizations to monitor media coverage of Presidential and Parliamentary elections in Ukraine in 2019. The aim of the training was to enhance skills and capacity of civil society to exercise effective control over political advertising during elections, as well as to contribute to balanced, unbiased, and neutral media coverage of elections.
Participants of the training were selected after an open call for applications out of 66 candidates on the basis of relevant professional experience and willingness to monitor violations in media coverage of elections.
The training seminar and monitoring methodology were elaborated by Mr. Rasto Kužel, media and elections expert with over 20 years of extensive international experience of delivering media monitoring on behalf of international institutions as well as technical assistance to civil-society groups (over 150 elections and media-related projects in the framework of the UN, Council of Europe, OSCE, IFES, NED, NDI, DRI, and IMS activities), and Mr. Oleksandr Burmagin, Ukrainian media expert, lawyer, Executive Director of NGO "Human Rights Platform”, member of the Independent Media Council.
The participants were trained on how to monitor political and electoral coverage, social pluralism and advertising, as well as got familiarized with core professional and ethical journalists’ standards in terms of truth and accuracy, independence, accountability, fairness and impartiality while reporting on political and social subjects. They also discussed with the trainers the most significant challenges faced by some of the countries around the world during elections and the challenges for the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine scheduled in March and October 2019, respectively.
This training is part of a comprehensive range of activities in the field of media and elections in Ukraine, supported by the Council of Europe within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine for 2018 – 2021*.
To know more about the activities of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, follow us on Tweeter @UkraineCoE.
* The training was organised with the support of two Council of Europe projects: “Supporting the transparency, inclusiveness and integrity of electoral practice in Ukraine” and “Strengthening Freedom of Media, Access to Information and Reinforcing Public Broadcasting System in Ukraine”.
