Steven N.
On a global level, Hungarians are among the most distrustful of their government and media, the nearly 200-page “Global Trustworthiness Monitor” study on 29 countries by Ipsos has found.
A mere 17% of Hungarians in the survey said that they trusted the government, while 58% had no trust in it. As low as this is, the media managed to outperform it: only 10% of Hungarians expressed trust in the media, while 52% said they did not.
Hungarians’ confidence in their government is only one percentage point higher than in the United States, but Americans’ lack of trust in their government is also two percentage points higher. Just barely behind Hungary is Italy, where an identical 17% trust their political leadership and 54% feel the government is not being totally honest with its citizens.
Regarding the press, only the United Kingdom has as little trust in the media as Hungary, with the same 52% proportion of those who claim that the media cannot be trusted. Just ahead of Hungary in this respect is Japan, where 13% of respondents say the media is credible, while 42% believe it is not.
Taking a look at media companies in particular, the picture is even gloomier: only 9% of Hungarians have trust in them. Pharmaceutical companies at 23% and tech companies at 32% have somewhat better numbers, while 37% of Hungarians believe oil and fuel companies are lying to them. [Népszava]
