The vice-prime minister for Humanitarian Affairs Nickolay Tomenko is initiating an analysis of the political advertisements that are placed in the mass information media during election campaigns, "Ukrainian News" reported.

Tomenko announced this at a roundtable conference dedicated to the operations of state and communal mass media during election campaigns.

According to Tomenko, political advertisements in the mass media frequently contain incitements to inter-ethnic enmity and violate moral and ethical norms.

At the same time, according to him, nobody bears responsibility for the content of such advertisements and the mass media has no right to refuse to broadcast such advertisements.

"Someone should provide some sort of evaluation," he said.

In connection with this, Tomenko is initiating inclusion of experts in the Central Electoral Commission so that they can analyze political advertisements at the request of the mass media to determine whether they violate moral norms or incite enmity.

Tomenko also stressed the need to change the system of management and the status of state-owned mass media to ensure that the founders of such media organizations exert no pressure on them.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, representatives of then-presidential candidate Viktor Yuschenko repeatedly reported anti-Yuschenko campaign materials in the mass media during the 2004 Ukrainian presidential elections.

During the October-November period of 2004, several Ukrainian said that they intended to operate honestly and broadcast full, verified, and unbiased information.

In late October, 38 journalists, editors, and presenters with the Inter, ICTV, Novyi Kanal, NTN, Tonis, and 1+1 television channels signed a statement in which they undertook to honestly cover the Ukrainian presidential elections.

Other journalists later signed the statement.

The next parliamentary elections are scheduled for March 2006.

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