The majority of Czech citizens are in favor of restricting media that deliberately spread misinformation, according to research by CEDMO Trends at Charles University.
The majority of people, more specifically 70 percent, consider it right for the state to restrict or limit media that spread false or manipulative information. At the same time, however, almost three-fifths were unaware that the position of government commissioner for media and misinformation existed until February. While 42 per cent said the post was necessary, 36 per cent said it was unnecessary because spreading misinformation is part of media communication and nothing can be done about it. This is according to a survey conducted by CEDMO Trends at Charles University in March, the results of which are available to ČTK.
The post of media and misinformation commissioner was abolished by the government in mid-February when Michal Klíma quit after less than a year. It was created in March last year and the government hoped it would be more effective in combating misinformation and coordinating the activities taking place in individual offices in this area. The new agenda of combating the influence of foreign powers fell to the national security adviser Tomáš Pojaro, and part of it was transferred to the strategic communications department at the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic.
About two-fifths of the respondents agreed the agenda of the abolished function had been transferred to the national security advisor. In contrast, 38 percent agreed with the statement that there should be no position or branch of government that deals with misinformation. However, three-quarters of respondents considered the spread of misinformation to be a serious problem.
In particular, respondents identified television outlets such as Czech Television, Nova and Prima and conversations with family members, neighbours, friends and colleagues as credible sources of information. They also found Czech Radio and commercial radio stations trustworthy.
According to the survey findings, respondents mostly think that they have not been exposed to misinformation in the past month. Two-fifths said they were rather not exposed to it and another fifth was not exposed to it at all. "Most often, misinformation reached people in the past month through articles on web portals, however, discussions on social media, under articles on web portals, and statuses on social media also followed closely in the responses. Mass-forwarded emails and verbal submissions were less represented compared to the above sources," the authors of the research stated.
The research was conducted by Median and involved 3,000 respondents aged 16 and older between 15 and 27 March.
Source: mediaguru.cz
