South Koreans are notoriously distrustful of the news media, a trend that was again confirmed in the latest Digital News Report by the Reuters Institute, released June 14. According to the report, only 28% of South Koreans said they trust the news, placing South Korea 41st among the 46 countries surveyed.
Among individual news outlets, MBC News, famous for standing up to the unpopular Yoon Suk-yeol 윤석열 administration, received the highest marks (58%) as a trusted source of news with “a significant year-on-year increase” according to the Reuters report. (See previous coverage, “Yoon Administration Raids MBC News.”) KBS News (55%) and YTN (55%) also received comparatively high levels of trust.
The least trusted news outlet was the conservative stalwart Chosun Ilbo 조선일보, with 40% of respondents saying they didn’t trust it. Chosun’s cable TV affiliate TV Chosun TV조선 (39%) and the conservative paper Dong-A Ilbo 동아일보 (34%) also received negative marks.
