Albanians trust the media, particularly written media, more than most of their European counterparts, according to a report from the EBU Media Intelligence Service. In their report “Trust in Media 2020”, they analyse how citizens of different countries perceive the media and its output.
67% of Albanians trust the radio, 66% trust the television, and an impressive 77% trust what they read in the written press.
Overall, 81% of Albanians trust the media—42% place high trust, and 39% have medium trust—with only 19% not trusting it.
With less than 20% of the population not trusting the media, Albania is at the top of Europe in terms of how the public perceives it, according to the report.
The report gathered results from a number of studies including a European Commission public opinion survey- the 92nd Standard Eurobarometer. It also draws on the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2019, GlobalWebIndex, EUB member organisations and British regulator Ofcom.
In fact, trust levels in written media were highest out of all the nations surveyed, surpassing the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. The country’s net trust index has increased by 26 points from 2019 to 2019.
Albanians also trust the internet more than many of their European counterparts. 48% said they trust it, 9% are not sure, and 43% do not. Bulgaria and Hungary had more trusting citizens, whereas Brits and Swedes were not so convinced.
41% of Albanian’s trust what they see on social media, second only to Bulgaria where 46% believe what they read on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Turkey, Romania, and Hungary were the next most trusting, with the UK, Sweden and France ranking least trusting.
The European trend is that people trust radio and TV more than written media, but in Albania, the opposite is true. Albanians put 10% more trust in online and printed news than they do what they see on the television.
The report noted that the higher the trust in radio and TV, the higher a country’s level of press freedom is.
