Back to news

‘Jeansa’ or Paid Journalism Reportedly on Decline

March 9 – Compromised, paid journalism – or “jeansa” – is on the decline in Ukraine, according to survey research fielded by the Institute of Mass Information.

Five percent of local news media coverage in Ukraine’s south and east contains at least some “jeansa”, according to the IMI research. This is down from 15 percent in fall 2015 and could be associated with a more stable political environment than two years ago.

The Dnipro and Mykolaiv media, at nine and seven percent, respectively, were most likely to produce jeansa in news coverage, according to the IMI research. The Kharkiv and Kherson media – at two percent – were least likely to resort to compromised news coverage. Most “jeansa” material is placed in the print media (six percent), and four percent of Internet and television media is compromised through coverage of journalists paid by special interests, according to the survey.
IMI expert Olena Golub commented the “percentage of “jeansa” in the oblasts monitored is quite high, which may be a characteristic of political crisis that leads to systematic placing materials pre-paid by political parties in local media.”
The Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative supported the IMI research.

More on the Institute for Mass Information website in Ukrainian.