Trust in news drops to 35 percent among Turkish citizens

The 2023 Digital News Report, prepared by the Oxford University and the Reuters Institute, has revealed that the proportion of people in Turkey who said they trust the news most of the time has fallen by one point to 35 percent compared to 2022.

Wednesday June 14 2023 09:42 pm

Duvar English

The percentage of people who expressed trust in the news "most of the time" has decreased by one point to 35 percent in comparison to the figures recorded in 2022, according to the recently released 2023 Digital News Report.

Prepared by the Oxford University in the United Kingdom and the Reuters Institute, the report showed that 40 percent of the respondents in global said they trust the news most of the time, decreasing two percentage points from 2022.

Fox TV in Turkey, with the largest offline reach, is the most trusted brand according to the respondents. Another brand known for its oppositional stance, the daily Cumhuriyet, also scored high on trust.

The share of printed formats as a news source has fallen from 50 percent in 2015 to 21 percent in 2023. Online news sources, including social media, also declined but remained as the top news source at 75 percent. The share of TV as a news source has declined from 75 percent to 56 percent.

The report also mentioned that most of the media sources in Turkey is under government control and critical voices are restricted in digital and social media. Citing Reporters Without Borders, the report said that the government was pursuing a policy of "almost systematic censorship on the Internet" and reminded that Turkey ranked 165th out of 180 countries in the world press freedom index.

In Turkey, YouTube ranked first on social media platforms as a news source with 45 percent, followed by Instagram at 40 percent, Facebook at 33 percent, WhatsApp at 28 percent, Twitter at 26 percent, and Tiktok at 10 percent. Globally, the rise of TikTok and Instagram discrowned the long-lasting dominance of Facebook.

Figures in parentheses indicate change from previous year.