More And More Russians Abandoning Newspapers, Doubting Their Independence — Poll
Interfax - 2.29.12 - JRL 2012-37

Moscow, 29 February: Russians are reading fewer newspapers than before and over the years have become increasingly convinced that Russian mass media outlets are not free enough, an opinion poll shows.

The share of Russians reading more than two daily newspapers on a regular basis has decreased from 18 per cent to 12 per cent over the past two years. The number of those used to skimming through only one paper a day has also fallen to 20 per cent, down from 23 per cent, Levada Centre sociologists said as they shared the results of their survey with Interfax.

According to their data, two thirds of people who took part in their January poll (65 per cent) said they only occasionally read newspapers, and the number of such people has grown by 9 percentage points since 2010.

The survey also revealed that Russians are becoming increasingly convinced that the country's mass media are gradually being brought under state control. Thus, only 39 per cent of respondents — against 46 per cent in 2010 — said in January 2012 that they regarded the Russian press as "absolutely free" or "mostly free". Meanwhile, almost half of the respondents (47 per cent) still believe Russian mass media outlets are state-controlled (against 45 per cent in 2010), the sociologists said.

Keywords: Russia, Media, Internet - Russia News - Russia

Moscow, 29 February: Russians are reading fewer newspapers than before and over the years have become increasingly convinced that Russian mass media outlets are not free enough, an opinion poll shows.

The share of Russians reading more than two daily newspapers on a regular basis has decreased from 18 per cent to 12 per cent over the past two years. The number of those used to skimming through only one paper a day has also fallen to 20 per cent, down from 23 per cent, Levada Centre sociologists said as they shared the results of their survey with Interfax.

According to their data, two thirds of people who took part in their January poll (65 per cent) said they only occasionally read newspapers, and the number of such people has grown by 9 percentage points since 2010.

The survey also revealed that Russians are becoming increasingly convinced that the country's mass media are gradually being brought under state control. Thus, only 39 per cent of respondents — against 46 per cent in 2010 — said in January 2012 that they regarded the Russian press as "absolutely free" or "mostly free". Meanwhile, almost half of the respondents (47 per cent) still believe Russian mass media outlets are state-controlled (against 45 per cent in 2010), the sociologists said.