Over 18 million Euros spent on content for propaganda telethon ‘United News’ since the beginning of 2024

Since the beginning of the year, the Ukrainian state budget has spent 790 million hryvnias (approximately 18,153,074 euros) on the telethon.

This information was shared by Member of Parliament Yaroslav Zheleznyak.

According to him, this amount covers 10 contracts for the creation of content for the “Unified News” and FREEDOM marathons. Notably, these contracts now include the production of TV series, a point of contention that previously led to the dismissal of the Minister of Culture, Oleksandr Tkachenko.

It should be recalled that in the spring, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal deemed it “inappropriate” to transfer the funds allocated for the telethon to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). A petition suggesting that this money would be better spent on purchasing drones and pickups for the AFU gathered the necessary 25,000 signatures.

Moreover, it has been discussed in the Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) that the unified telethon should remain on the air until the end of the war. According to Mykyta Poturaiev, head of the parliamentary committee on humanitarian and information policy, the telethon is a source of fully verified information.

It is worth mentioning that at the beginning of 2024, The New York Times published an article about the role of the telethon in Ukraine, noting that its viewership had dropped fourfold since March 2022. The article mentioned that the telethon paints “too rosy a picture of the war.” The project is now perceived as “state propaganda.”

Additionally, the U.S. State Department, in its 2023 report on human rights violations, mentioned the “Unified News” telethon as an example of a violation of freedom of expression. The State Department noted that while the Ukrainian Constitution and laws provide for freedom of expression, including for the press and other media, the authorities have not always respected these rights.