67% people in India trust media for coronavirus-related news: Survey

India is among top countries where 67 per cent of the people trust the media for the information related to COVID-19, revealed a report by YouGov, a global market research and data company.

In a study conducted in select countries to find out how many people trust the media in times of pandemic, Vietnam topped the list with 89 per cent of people voting in favor of the media.

Vietnamese media has the highest level of trust among the people regarding coverage of the coronavirus. Similarly, 67 per cent of Indians believe in the media for the information published about the pandemic, followed by China where 62 per cent people trust the media.

Among these top three countries except India, the media is highly monitored and controlled by the respective governments. In terms of press freedom in the country, the ranking of Vietnam (175) and China (177) had been worse.

India, which ranks 142 on the press freedom index calculated by Reporters without border, interestingly grabbed the second spot in the media trust list by YouGov.

The respondents in the developed nations and those with higher rankings on the index could be seen giving mixed responses to the same set of questions.

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Germany, Spain, and the United States of America (USA) which has higher rankings on the press freedom index showed the trust of people in the range of 40 to 50 per cent, according to the survey.

France (38 per cent), United Kingdom (31 per cent), and Italy (26 per cent) were among the lowest-scoring countries in terms of trust in the media. These countries fall under the top 50 countries with free press regimes. The higher number of cases and widespread infections could be one of the reasons for the deteriorating trust of the people.

The survey was conducted from May 5 to 13 in these countries.

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