Most ethnic minority representatives find out about Ukraine from Russian television

The majority of ethnic minority representatives find out about events in Ukraine from Russian TV channels, which blame Ukraine for the current conflict, reports the Radio and Television Commission of Lithuania.

A survey carried out by ‘Vilmorus’, the public opinion research institute, shows that 58% of ethnic minority representatives find out about events in Ukraine from Russian television first, and only later from Lithuanian TV channels. The second sources of information are Lithuanian commercial channels (38%) and LRT (Lithuanian National Television – 30%).

30% of the respondents claim that the Russian press informs them in an objective manner about events in Ukraine and 29% of those that answered consider these news reports biased. Moreover, 32% of those surveyed think that the news about Ukraine provided by Lithuanian television is objective, while 29% of respondents regard this news as biased.

26% of the ethnic minority representatives blame Ukraine for the conflict on its territory, while 23% of those asked think that the European Union and the United States are responsible for the conflict in Ukraine. 16% blamed Russia for the conflict and 6% feel that separatists are the guilty party.

In turn, 55% of Lithuanians accuse Russia of provoking the conflict in Ukraine and 18% of them find separatists the guilty party. 10% of Lithuanians blame Ukraine itself and 7% of them think that the European Union and the United States are responsible for this conflict.

For Lithuanians, the main source of news about the Ukrainian conflict is their national media. Some 51% of Lithuanians consider the provided news objective and 25% of the respondents regard the news reports as biased. 60% of those that answered doubt that the Russian press is objective.

This public opinion research was carried out in December 2014. Some 886 Lithuanians and 501 people of different nationalities, all aged between 15 -74, took part in this survey.