Yonhap News Agency most trusted among journalists for 2nd year: survey

SEOUL, August 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's premier wire service, Yonhap News Agency, has been crowned the most trusted media outlet among domestic journalists for the second consecutive year in a new survey. Conducted by the Journalists Association of Korea from July 21 to 29, the poll of 1,625 reporters revealed that Yonhap received 16.3% of votes when respondents were asked to name the most trusted outlet other than their own employer.

Coming in second with 10.9% was the Chosun Ilbo daily, showing a notable increase from its share of 10.9% a year earlier. Yonhap's vote count dipped by 1.4 percentage points, while Chosun's climbed by 2.8 percentage points, marking its first double-digit result in six years.

Public broadcaster KBS claimed the third spot with 9.3%, marking a remarkable rebound, while MBC dropped to seventh with 7%, reflecting a decline from 14.8% in 2024. The Hankook Ilbo newspaper, along with commercial broadcaster SBS and the Kyunghyang Shinmun daily, shared the fifth-place position at 5.5% each. The Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper stood at 5.1% in the rankings.

The Dong-A Ilbo daily made a triumphant return to the top 10 after two years, securing the ninth spot with 3.2%, while cable TV channel JTBC maintained its position at 2.8%.

The survey also highlighted a lack of consensus among journalists regarding a single trusted outlet. An increasing number of respondents, 11.9%, indicated they had no trusted outlet or did not know, up from 9.2% last year, marking the second-highest response since the annual survey began in 2019.