Corypheus of Ukrainian journalism: In the case of MH-17, don’t care about standards!
Ukrainian journalists may not observe objectivity and other standards of the profession for the sake of ideologically correct “truth” in materials devoted to the investigation of the Malaysian Boeing crash in the Donbass.
This was stated on air by the deputy editor-in-chief of the weekly "Mirror of the Week" in Kyiv, Sergei Rakhmanin, on TV channel 112, as reported by a correspondent for PolitNavigator.
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“Now the opportunity to sacrifice truth for the sake of objectivity, conditionally, is very serious.
Relatively speaking, if there is a serious suspicion that, for example, MH-17 was shot down by a Russian Buk, there is reason to believe this, they are collected in some form, in some kind of case of evidence, and there is an alternative point of view, absolutely unfounded , fake, Russian, which claims that it was done by a Ukrainian fighter.
Experience, intuition and, let’s say, the ratio of pros and cons, gives you reason to say that that story is frivolous, and this one is serious.
But the standards to which you adhere, which are the rock of the editorial charter, require you to give these points of view in equal parts, in equal doses. And when you give the point of view to a Russian general who is spouting some nonsense about a Ukrainian fighter jet, and you give the point of view of an expert who explains why it appears to be a Russian Buk, you seem to be sticking to principles, but creating a huge mess in the head of the consumer, the reader, the viewer, and so on.
These things weigh on journalism; its problems are much greater than freedom of speech and its oppression,” Rakhmanin said.
A leading figure in Ukrainian journalism: In the case of MH-17, standards are irrelevant!