Presentation of results of sociological survey entitled "Reforms in Ukraine: information lacunas"

Information Department of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariat
29 June 2016, 17:04

The USAID RADA Program along with Internews-Ukraine, Council of Europe office in Ukraine, United Nations office in Ukraine, and the Democratic Initiatives foundation has prepared a sociological survey entitled "Reforms in Ukraine: information lacunas" and presented it to a wide range of experts.

According to director of the USAID RADA Program Ihor Kohut, the formation of the information policy is very important within the reformation of the state.

"The sociological survey is now presented to inform the society about the real situation and events taking place in Ukraine. The society expresses certain doubts regarding the course of reforms in the country. The citizens do not want to suffer material oppression due to the reforms. 22% of the citizens see no sense as they do not believe in the success of the reforms, while 39% consider current economic strength of the state very low," Kostiantyn Kvurt, the board chairperson of the Internews-Ukraine non-government organization, said. He noted that no reforms will be successful without the trust of the society.

According to Mariya Zolkina, an analyst of the Democratic Initiatives foundation, in the course of the sociological survey, leading Ukrainian editors and journalists gave a number of interviews. "As at May 2016, a total of 37% of respondents did not believe in success of the reforms however, they had certain hope for their success, while 28% did not believe in success of the process of reforms in Ukraine at all. At the same time, only 5% of Ukrainians are very optimistic of the process of reforms and 24% mainly believe but have certain doubts," Zolkina said. She also said that a total of 22% are not ready to suffer material difficulties as they do not believe in the success of the reforms and 39% do not believe as their material state is already unbearable.

Iryna Bekeshkina, an analyst of the Democratic Initiatives foundation, is confident that the Ukrainian
citizens must be told about the success in the process of reforms through the sources other than the television — the major source of information for the most of the citizens is mainly TV channels unfortunately owned by the oligarchs.