The press release was prepared by Anton Hrushetskyi, executive director of KIIS

During February 5-10, 2024, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted an all-Ukrainian public opinion survey "Omnibus", to which a question was added about the trust in the telethon "Yedyni Novyny". Bythemethodofcomputer-assistedtelephoneinterviews(CATI) based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers (with random generation of phone numbers and subsequent statistical weighting), 1,202 respondents living in all regions of Ukraine (except AR of Crimea) were interviewed. The survey was conducted with adult (aged 18 and older) citizens of Ukraine who, at the time of the survey, lived on the territory of Ukraine (within the boundaries controlled by the authorities of Ukraine until February 24, 2022). The sample did not include residents of territories that were temporarily not controlled by the authorities of Ukraine, and the survey was not conducted with citizens abroad.

Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.1) did not exceed 3.2% for indicators close to 50%, 2.7% for indicators close to 25%, 2.1% - for indicators close to 10%, 1.4% - for indicators close to 5%.

Under conditions of war, in addition to the specified formal error, a certain systematic deviation is added. KIIS previously cited factors that can affect the quality of results in "wartime" conditions.

In general, we believe that the obtained results are still highly representative for the population of Ukraine living in the territory under the control of the Government, and allow a fairly reliable analysis of the public moods of the population.

The idea of a telethon "Yedyni Novyny" enjoyed wide support in 2022, but since 2023 there has been a steady decline in trust, and as of February 2024, we have recorded a negative balance of trust-distrust for the first time (that is, the number of those who trust is now less than the number of those who do not trust). Thus, in December 2023, 43% trusted the "Yedyni Novyny"telethon, 38% did not trust it. As of the beginning of February 2024, the share of those who trust has decreased to 36%. On the other hand, the share of those who do not trust has increased to 47%.

Graph 1. To what extent do you trust or not trust the following institutions and organizations?

Telethon "Yedyni Novyny"

It is important to note that although those who do not trust V. Zelenskyi are much more critical of the telethon, among those who trust V. Zelenskyi, 48% trust the telethon, and 33% do not trust it.

Graph2. Trust in the telethon "YedyniNovyny" depending on trust / distrust of V. Zelenskyi

Residents of the West and the Center are somewhat more critical of the "Yedyni Novyny" telethon. At the same time, in fact, in all regions, no more than 40% trust it.

Graph3. Trust in the telethon "Edyni Novyny" in the regional dimension

A. Hrushetskyi, comments on the survey results:

The results of the survey show that an increasing number of Ukrainians are critical of the "Yedyni Novyny" telethon. For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that after the large-scale invasion the media landscape in Ukraine has changed significantly. Before the invasion, the main source of political information for the majority of the population remained several national TV channels. At the same time, in September 2023, in a KIIS survey for the Consultative Mission of the European Union, 77% of respondents answered that they usually receive information from one of the Internet sources (primarily from Telegram channels), and 43% from television news (and it is understandable, that only a part of them received precisely from the telethon "Yedyni Novyny"). Other KIIS surveys showed that TV viewing of "Yedyni Novyny" is often background (rather than careful analysis). That is, in reality, not so many Ukrainians receive information from "Yedyni Novyny" (accordingly, mostly evaluations of the telethon are made not on the basis of their own viewing, but through the interpretations of public opinion leaders, other media, etc.). Therefore, criticism of the telethon often has something in common with the infamous Soviet "I didn't read it, but I condemn it".

However, the strengthening of the public demand for reformatting of the telethon should not be left aside and even more so ignored. Just two months ago, the balance of trust-distrust in "Yedyni Novyny" was positive, now it is already negative. However, even now there is still space for solutions that would satisfy the public and allow to transform the activity of the telethon into a format that will be more relevant to the current internal and external situation.

Annex 1. Formulation of questions from the questionnaire

To what extent do you trust or not trust the following institutions and organizations?