South Koreans are split over whether or not they trust the COVID-19 related information they are getting from local media.
A Realmeter survey commissioned by TBS found 49.3 percent of adults in the country do not believe in all the news they are getting from Korean outlets while 48.3 percent trust what's being reported.
The figures reflect public sentiment amid rising fear and misinformation about the virus epidemic in the country, which has led the government to crack down on fake news.
According to the pollster, those who showed the strongest disapproval of local media coverage were from Seoul and North Gyeongsang Province, in their 40s and 50s and politically progressive.
It found that people in Incheon and the Jeolla provinces, in their 20s and 60s, without any political leanings, were more inclined to trust the media.
The phone survey, conducted Wednesday on 501 adults nationwide, had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points and a confidence level of 95 percent.■
<Photo: Yonhap News>
