Trust in UK Media Institutions %ofSurvey Respondents Tend not to trust Tend to trust
Those who pushed for the new watchdog cited the phone hacking scandal for undermining public trust in the press and reinforcing the need for more oversight. A Eurobarometer survey, sponsored late last year by the European Commission, found that only 21% of the British public trusted the print press, compared with 49% who trusted television and 54% who trusted radio. While those numbers are bleak for print outlets, they are in keeping with trust levels that have hovered between the high teens and low twenties in past Eurobarometer surveys.
Trust in UK Media Institutions  | %ofSurvey Respondents  | Tend not to trust Tend to trust  | Radio  | 37  | 54  | Television  | 49  | Press  | 75  | 21  | Source European Commission. Standard Euroba rometer 78  | Autumn 2012. Media Use in the European Union.  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 