HKU POP SITE releases for the first time people's appraisal of local news media's professionalismBack

The Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong today releases on schedule via the "HKU POP SITE" (http://hkupop.pori.hk) for the first time people's appraisal of the professionalism of the local news media. This series of polls has been conducted regularly and frequently by the POP Team since July 1997. Detailed figures are now available on-line, the latest figures are summarized together with those obtained in the early period, as follows:

* "95% confidence level" means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified.
** Collapsed from a 5-point scale.

In the second half of 1997, after the handover, an average of 34% of the respondents perceived our local news media to be responsible in their reporting, 55% said they had given full play to the freedom of speech, but 52% said they had misused the freedom of press. In early February this year, 20% perceived local news media to be responsible in their reporting, whereas 29% said they were irresponsible. On the other hand, 67% believed local news media had given full play to the freedom of speech, but 62% said they had misused or abused the freedom of press.

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "In terms of the degree of responsibility shown by local news reporting, people's appraisal of our local news media plunged in the first three years after the handover. At the beginning of 2000, negative opinions outweighed positive ones by almost 40 percentage points. The margin has since then narrowed, it was 9 percentage points in our latest survey. Regarding the media's handling of freedom of speech and press, there have always been two strong opinions. On the one hand, many people considered our news media to have given full play to the freedom of speech, but many, although slightly less, people said they had misused or abused the freedom of press. This reflects the diversity of our media, both in terms of variety and professionalism."

POP's normal practice is to release the results of our regular surveys every Tuesday at 2 pm via our POP Site, except during public holidays, each time with a forecast of the items to be released in the forthcoming week. We will review and adjust this operation regularly. According to this schedule, the date and time of our next release will be March 2, 2004, Tuesday, at 2 pm, the latest findings on the popularity of CE Tung Chee-hwa, people's appraisal of the performance of the HKSAR Government and ratings of the most well-known political groups will be released. Besides, we will also release the latest results of people's trust in the HKSAR and Beijing Central Governments, their confidence in Hong Kong's future, China's future and "one country, two systems".

Shall anyone have any question regarding the research design of the surveys published in the POP Site, members of the POP Team will be happy to answer them, but we will not further comment on the findings. Shall any person or journalist have any other questions, please email them to us at <[email protected]>. The Director of Public Opinion Programme would answer them as soon as possible. We will keep such an arrangement under constant review, suggestions most welcome. Please note that everything carried in the POP Site does not represent the stand of the University of Hong Kong. Dr Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, is responsible for everything posted herewith, except for column articles which represent the stand of their authors.