The Institute of Mass Information (IMI) published a rating of Ukrainian online media that most adhered to journalistic standards in the third quarter of 2026. Babel is again on the list.
Experts determined that the following media outlets complied with the standards in at least 95% of cases: Suspilne, hromadske, Babel, LB.ua, Ukrinform, Slovo i Dilo, Novynarnya, Ukrainska Pravda, LIGA.net, ZN.UA, and Espresso.
"The violations are mostly isolated and relate to insufficient attribution of information, uncritical reproduction of assumptions and assessments. At the same time, even among the leaders, the monitoring revealed editorial practices that require correction," IMI emphasized.
The lowest standards compliance rates were recorded on the websites of "Telegraph", TSN, "Focus", OBOZ.UA, UNIAN and "24 Channel". IMI says that in these media, materials with violations make up a significant part of the news sections, and in some places they prevail over real news. The worst situation is on the "Telegraph" website, where only a few publications meet professional standards.
Overall, the Institute of Mass Information noted that the level of compliance with the balance of opinions and views in online media news decreased from 97.4% in the second quarter to 96.04% in the third.
The reliability indicator remained almost unchanged at 95% compared to 95.1% in the previous quarter, and the average level of compliance with the separation of facts from comments decreased from 83.6% to 82.8%.
Інститут масової інформації
IMI emphasized that the results of monitoring for the third quarter of 2026 confirm that the gap between Ukrainian online media in terms of news quality has deepened. In some editorial offices, a high level of adherence to professional standards remains a consistent practice, while others increasingly allow themselves to neglect even the basic requirements of the information genre.
"The difference between these groups is already so significant that the average standards compliance rates do not reflect the full depth of the problem. The greatest concern is the transformation of news sections into platforms for attracting traffic at any cost. Recipes, horoscopes, superstitions, household tips and gossip fill the space intended for reporting on events. Even real news is often overgrown with editorial assessments, emotional exaggerations and assumptions. Added to this are materials with signs of being commissioned, which use the trust in the news format to promote political and commercial interests," the analysts emphasized.
- IMI monitored 25 popular online media outlets in Ukraine: Babel, Hromadske, Suspilne, Rubryka, Slovo i Dilo, Novynarnya, ZN.UA, Ukrainska Pravda, Espresso, Ukrinform, LIGA.net, NV, LB.ua, Censor.NET, Gordon, Interfax-Ukraine, Novyny.Live, Korrespondent.net, RBC-Ukraine, Focus, UNIAN, Kanal 24, TSN, OBOZ.UA, Telegraf.
- 100 materials were extracted from the news section of each site, which were published in the news feeds of each publication in September 2026. You can learn more about the methodology at the link.
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