World divided on press freedom (page 2 of 2)

The Egyptian media is perceived as relatively free "to report the news accurately, truthfully and without undue political bias" - 64% of the population give a high freedom rating, compared with 56% globally. Perceptions of the honesty and accuracy of news reporting by government or publicly-funded news organisations are above average.

Forty-four percent of Egyptians give a "good" performance rating, compared with 39% globally. However, perceptions of privately-funded organisations are less positive, with 33 percent giving a "good job" rating (versus 43% worldwide) and 50% giving an "average" rating (36% worldwide).

In spite of this, Egypt is one of only three countries where a majority believe media "ownership is not an issue because media owners do not interfere with the news content". Fifty-nine percent of Egyptians (35% overall) subscribe to this view, the highest proportion globally. The population is split almost equally between those who believe it is important for them to have a say in news reporting decisions and those who believe such decisions should be left to news organisations.

United Arab Emirates
In the United Arab Emirates, the population is divided on press freedom, media ownership and having a say in news reporting decisions.

UAE views on press freedom are fairly equally divided between those who agree freedom is more important than stability (51%) and those who agree that stability is more important (48%). The UAE media is perceived as similarly free to accurately report the news as the media globally. Fifty-six percent of UAE citizens give a high freedom rating, compared with 56% globally, while 23% give a low rating, compared with 19 percent globally. Perceptions of reporting by news organisations are favourable. Fifty-one percent of the UAE population give a high performance rating to the private media, compared with 43% globally.

There is virtually no differentiation between public and private media performance. In the UAE, views on media ownership are similar to those reported in Egypt. Fifty-four percent of people support the view that ownership is not an issue because owners do not interfere with news content, while 38% feel that media ownership is a major issue because owners' political views often emerge in the news. Again, in line with Egyptian views, UAE citizens are almost equally divided on the issue of having a say in news reporting decisions. Fifty percent of the UAE population think "it is important that people like me should have a say in what gets reported in the news", while 48% think "that decisions as to which stories get reported in the news are best left to news organisations".