Windmills along the Dnieper River in Ukraine | By oriana.italy
Section 1: History, government and media climate
By Rylie Oswald
History
Ukraine is nestled against Russia’s western border and is the second largest country in Europe, according to BBC News. Its population totals nearly 45 million, and it covers over 230,000 square miles, which means it is slightly smaller than Texas, according to the CIA World Factbook.
Ukraine’s land is largely agricultural while its industry side resides in the eastern part of the country, according to BBC News. The country’s natural resources include coal, oil, natural gas and timber, according to the CIA.
Along the Black Sea, which borders the country to the south, winters are cool while they are much colder farther inland, according to the CIA. Summers are warm across most of the country but hot in the south.
Ukrainian is the official language of Ukraine, but almost 30% of the population speaks Russian, according to the CIA.
Ukraine has a history of fighting for its freedom, according to the CIA. During the 10th and 11th centuries, Ukraine was part of the largest and most powerful European state, Kyivan Rus. However, Kyivan Rus became weak after deadly conflicts and Mongol invasions; it merged with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania before becoming part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
During the middle of the 17th century, a new Ukrainian state emerged after rising against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, according to the CIA. The state, the Cossack Hetmanate, remained independent for over a century until the late 18th century when the Russian Empire had secured most of its territory.
Ukraine did not have freedom from Russia until after the Russian Revolution, according to BBC News. However, Russia shortly regained control over Ukraine again after inducing famines in the country, according to the CIA. When the USSR dissolved in 1991, Ukraine gained freedom from Russia again.
Government
Ukraine’s government type is a semi-presidential republic, according to the CIA. A semi-presidential republic elects a president via a popular vote, according to a 2017 research article. The president shares power with a prime minister and a cabinet, which are both responsible to the legislature.
A majority popular vote elects Ukrainian presidents for a five-year term, according to the CIA. Ukraine’s Supreme Council, or Verkhovna Rada, has 450 seats; council members also serve for five years.
In 2004, a protest called the Orange Revolution lasted for two months and allowed Viktor Yushchenko to win in the presidential election against Viktor Yanukovych, according to BBC News.
Yanukovych returned to politics not long after, becoming prime minister in 2006 and later becoming president in 2010, according to the CIA.
In 2013, Yanukovych decided not to enter an association agreement with the European Union, according to BBC News. Instead, Yanukovych chose to strengthen the country’s economic ties to Russia, according to the CIA. This led to an eruption of protests in the central square of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
In February 2014, Yanukovych fled to Russia, and the next presidential election led to new “Western-leaning governments,” according to BBC News.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy became popular among Ukrainians when he starred on a TV show called Servant of the People, according to The Guardian. After filming the show for three years, Zelenskyy created his own political party, Servant of the People, named after the show. Zelenskyy then ran for president and won, which ushered Ukraine into a Western-leaning government.
Media Climate
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Ukrainian media has suffered, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Ukraine’s media actively must engage in an information war with Russia to fight against Russian propaganda.
Ukraine and Russia’s information war has led to Ukraine’s president banning pro-Russian media and restricting Russian social media, according to RSF. Russia often targets journalists with military fire, leading to a rise in journalist deaths; since the beginning of 2022, six journalists and two media workers have been killed in Ukraine. Russia’s targeting of journalist has also prevented Ukraine from having access to independent news.
Video from the Wall Street Journal
Even before Russia’s invasion, Ukraine’s press was fairly restricted; RSF lists the country’s press freedom ranking at 106 out of 180, which has worsened since 2021, when it was 97 out of 180.
After 2014, Ukraine passed laws to ensure transparent media, a right to information and protection for journalists, according to RSF. These laws led to the creation of Suspilne, a state broadcaster.
Ukrainians are guaranteed the right to “freely collect, store, use and disseminate information by oral, written or other means of his or her choice,” according to the Ukraine Constitution. Censorship is also prohibited.
However, Ukrainians sometimes cannot enjoy these rights due to oligarchs owning and influencing all Ukraine’s TV channels except Suspilne, according to RSF. Russian propaganda threatening parts of Ukraine that Russia has captured also stands in the way of free press.
Section 3: News, Journalists, and Misinformation
By Mackenzi Beck
Misinformation and Verifying News in Ukraine
About half of Ukrainians have internet access in their homes. According to BBG, in 2014 television was the most dominant news medium in Ukraine and news portal/email service Ukr.net, was the most popular online news source that Ukrainians used. However, the landscape might have changed since with the rise of social media.
With the Russian invasion and influence in some Ukrainian cities, getting accurate news to Ukrainians is a challenge. According to MIT Technology Review, Ukrainian activists use ads as a way to sneak real news to Russians. It is very likely that they are doing the same thing to get news to Ukrainians in Russian held cities.
MIT says that the ad news method, was first used in 2014 when Russia captured Crimea. Location targeting sends ads to people based on their location, those ads then link people to independent news websites so they can find out real news in Ukraine.
It is because of the prevalence of misinformation/disinformation and inaccurate propaganda that it is so important for journalists and Ukrainian citizens to verify each and every source and piece of news they receive.
In an attempted to squash misinformation/disinformation and Russian propaganda, according to time.com, many government officials in Ukraine choose to communicate factual information through the social media application Telegram. One of the ways that Ukrainian citizens can verify news is through Telegram. According to Time, another verification tool that some Ukrainian newspapers use is by including their sources in their stories so that readers know that information has been verified.
According to time.com, “in order to combat misinformation, Ukrainian government officials are constantly updating what’s happening on Telegram and Facebook.” Much of the news misinformation and disinformation in Ukraine is currently coming from Russians who even create fake profiles posing as Ukrainian officials.
The video below talks about some ways that reporters verify that photos, posts, and content they receive and view on social media are real.
Ukrainian Journalists
There are numerous journalists around the world covering Ukrainian news especially now during the war. This video talks with four NBC reporters; Ali Arouzi, Gabe Gutierrez, Molly Hunter, and Jacob Soboroff, about their experiences covering Ukraine and the challenges they face.
In the video, they talk about the local journalists in Kyiv who they admire because they are leaving their normal lives behind to cover the war. They talk about some journalists in Ukraine who have had to broadcast from secret locations and how local journalists have banded together to do one joint broadcast to the Ukrainian people. “Disinformation is being used as a weapon,” said one of the reporters. Journalists are important for sharing news and information with the Ukrainian people because journalism is the only way some people know about what’s going on.
The Evening Standard, out of London England, published the “most reliable journalists tweeting minute-by-minute updates from the war zone,” in the article, On the ground in Kyiv — 8 of the best Ukraine correspondents.
1. Olga Tokariuk is a Ukrainian journalist. She writes about humane interest stories and communicates mostly on Twitter, based in Western Ukraine.
2. Sarah Rainsford is a BBC Eastern European Correspondent. She used to report out of Russia and was expelled from Moscow Russia, last summer. She reports from the city of Kramatorsk in Ukraine now.
3. Christopher Miller is a national security and extremism correspondent for Buzzfeed. He retweets footage and news from contacts on the ground in Ukraine.
4. Olga Rudenko is the editor of Kyiv Independent newspaper.
5. Dan Rivers is news correspondent for ITV. He shares photos and videos from Ukraine activity.
6. Nolan Peterson is a former US special operations pilot who has been covering Ukraine since 2014.
7. Bryce Wilson is an Australian photojournalist who’s been covering Ukraine since 2015.
8. Michael Downey is a photojournalist and documentary film maker for the New York Times.