HKU POP SITE releases people's appraisal of local news mediaBack

The Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong interviewed 1,002 Hong Kong people between 7 and 13 September by means of a random telephone survey conducted by real interviewers. The survey finds that after going down significantly six months ago, the credibility rating of our local media has climbed back to the level registered about one year ago. People's satisfaction with press freedom, as well as their belief that the media has given full play to this freedom, remain high, both at 75%. However, almost 60% said the media has misused press freedom, and less than 35% consider the media to be responsible in their reporting. More than half believe the media has practiced self-censorship, reaching its record high since this survey series began, mainly because of their hesitation to criticize the Central Government, but not so with criticizing the HKSAR Government. On the other hand, our survey also shows that television and newspapers continue to be people's main sources of news, followed by the internet and radio. In terms of satisfaction, television as a news media continues to top the list while radio follows. People's satisfaction with newspapers is just fair, while their appraisal of magazines remains negative. It should be noted that compared to six months ago, people's satisfaction with television has dropped 6 percentage points, representing a new record low in the past 7 years, probably due to some people's criticisms of the news reports of a particular station. All in all, more than half of people are satisfied with the performance of the news media in general, which is significantly lower than their satisfaction with the degree of press freedom. The sampling error of all percentages is between +/-1 and 3 percentage points at 95% confidence level, while the sampling error of the rating figure is +/-0.10 mark. The response rate of the survey is 70%.

POP today releases on schedule via the "HKU POP SITE" (http://hkupop.pori.hk) the latest figures of people's appraisal of the local news media. According to our general practice, all figures have been weighted according to the provisional figures obtained from the Census and Statistics Department regarding the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population in 2008 year-end. Herewith the contact information for the latest survey:

Recent figures are summarized as follows:

Results of latest survey showed that, on a scale of 0-10, the latest credibility rating of the Hong Kong news media in general was 6.25 marks. Moreover, 75% of the respondents were satisfied with the freedom of the press in Hong Kong, 34% perceived the local news media to be responsible in their reporting, 75% believed the local news media had given full play to the freedom of speech, but 59% said they had misused or abused the freedom of press. Besides, 51% of the respondents thought the local news media had practised self-censorship while 33% perceived the contrary, 27% thought they had scruples when criticizing the HKSAR Government, whereas 59% thought they had scruples when criticizing the Central Government. The results of other questions such as people's main source of news and their satisfaction on individual news media are shown below:

Results of the survey also showed that, 83% and 68% of the respondents claimed their main source of news was the television and the newspaper respectively, while 55% thought the news reported by the former channel was the most trustworthy. Regarding people's appraisal of various news channels, 66% of the respondents were satisfied with the television, whereas 56% were satisfied with the radio. Comparatively speaking, people's satisfaction with the printed media was lower, as the respective satisfaction rates of the newspaper and the magazine were 38% and 8% only. All in all, the latest satisfaction rate of the above news media in general was 53%.

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, 「Our latest survey shows that after going down significantly six months ago, the credibility rating of our local media has climbed back to the level registered about one year ago. People's satisfaction with press freedom, as well as their belief that the media has given full play to this freedom, remain high, both at 75%. However, almost 60% said the media has misused press freedom, and less than 35% consider the media to be responsible in their reporting. More than half believe the media has practiced self-censorship, reaching its record high since this survey series began, mainly because of their hesitation to criticize the Central Government, but not so with criticizing the HKSAR Government. On the other hand, our survey also shows that television and newspapers continue to be people's main sources of news, followed by the internet and radio. In terms of satisfaction, television as a news media continues to top the list while radio follows. People's satisfaction with newspapers is just fair, while their appraisal of magazines remains negative. It should be noted that compared to six months ago, people's satisfaction with television has dropped 6 percentage points, representing a new record low in the past 7 years, probably due to some people's criticisms of the news reports of a particular station. All in all, more than half of people are satisfied with the performance of the news media in general, which is significantly lower than their satisfaction with the degree of press freedom. As for the reasons affecting people's appraisal of the press, readers can make their own judgment after reading the list of events archived in our "Opinion Daily" feature page in our "POP Site".」

• September 22, 2009 (Tuesday) 1pm to 2pm: Popularity figures of CE and the HKSAR Government