Around half of the people who get their news from NET or ONE believe they tell the truth, a survey of media in Malta has indicated. 

People who follow media owned by the party they voted for in 2017 were asked whether they believed what was reported. Almost 48% said they believed it "always" or "almost always" reported the truth. 

By contrast, when respondents were asked a more general question about trust in the media more generally, just over 40% said they  "always" or "almost always" believed the news.  A third of participants said their trust depended on the news source.

Absolute trust in the media appears to be more prevalent among 2017 Labour voters than Nationalist ones, with almost 32% of the former saying they "always" believed party news. Among people who voted PN last election, just 8.8% said they had absolute trust in party media, though 42.9% said they believed it "almost always" reported the truth. 

The survey, by academic and owner of research company Sagalytics Vincent Marmarà was carried out last October over the phone among 600 people aged 16 and over. It comes with a 95% level of confidence, and a +/- 4% marginal error.

The findings were launched on Saturday during a conference. 

Nearly half of respondents (47.4%) said they relied on just one news source, while a third (32.5%) double-source the news. A fifth go further and look for more than two sources.

And while more than 88% have heard of ‘fake news’, 60% have not heard of ‘conspiracy theories’.

Party-owned stations

While a significant number of people who watch their party's TV station believe what is reported, more than a third (35.9%) say they have some reservations.

Nearly 10% said they do not trust them much while a further 6.6% never believe them. Scepticism seems to increase with the respondents’ level of education.

A total of 4.4% of PL voters said they do not trust their party's media much, while for the PN that figure stood at 13.7%. A further 2.9% and 3.4% respectively said they never believe their party media's news.

Regardless, an overwhelming majority of respondents - more than four out of every five - said they want political stations to continue broadcasting news bulletins.

What do people make of independent media?

The survey found that only a minority - 21.6% - believe that Malta's independent media is "objective and neutral". A further 14.9% believe that independent media manage to present various perspectives.

A larger share, around one-third, believe that the independent media seeks to hide its bias, with a further third saying all media has its own agenda.

Public broadcasting bias  

Almost half (49.1%) think public broadcasting (TVM and Rajdu Malta) is always, or most often, pro-government.

Two-thirds of PL voters said public broadcasting is neutral, while 23.6% admitted it is most often in favour of the government. A further 8.4% said the station always favoured the current administration.

By contrast, 41.6% of PN voters said the station was most often in favour of the government while 31.7% said it was always so. Only a quarter (24.3%) said it was neutral.

The vast majority – 82.3% - think the public broadcaster should be independent, with 77.5% believing the quality of reporting would improve if it was independent from the government.

Private life of public people

Just 15.8% of participants believe the private life of public people should be made public and nearly three quarters believe such persons should be able to file for libel if they feel offended by criticism.

Who were the respondents?

A fifth were aged over 66, while around another fifth fall within the 26 to 35 age group.

The absolute majority – over 69% - are parents.

Two out of every five have completed only up to secondary education, while one out of every four finished tertiary education as well.

Half are in employment.

Asked which party they voted for in the last general election, 35.5% said they went for the PL, 26.3% PN, while 25.3% told the interviewer that the issue was a personal matter.

Where do they get their news from?

More than half get their news fix from TV, while two out of every five resort to their mobile phones.

Over 68% of those aged 56 to 65 said they sought news updates on TV, while nearly 70% of those aged between 16 and 25 prefer their mobile phone.

Interestingly, while 61% of PL voters prefer TV news and 33.6% read the news on their mobile phones, 52.2% of PN voters watch the news on TV and 41% look up the news on their phones.  

Newspapers are popular among only 1.2% of the respondents.