Filipinos do not trust the news. Are they sick of divisive politics?
Only 28 per cent of Filipinos said they trusted news most of the time, according to a global survey
Filipinos are losing faith in the news faster than audiences almost anywhere else in the world, as analysts attribute the decline to years of sustained attacks on the Philippine media industry and the growing reach of influence operations on social media.
Only 28 per cent of Filipinos said they trusted news most of the time, down from 38 per cent in 2025, according to the latest Reuters Institute Digital News Report – the steepest decline among respondents across 48 markets.
Social media remained the top source of news, with 72 per cent of Filipinos saying they relied on Facebook. About 51 per cent said they sometimes or often avoided the news altogether.
The report cited political instability, divisive elections and a “noisier and more fragmented information environment” as characteristics of countries where trust had fallen the most, including the Philippines, Thailand, Peru, Poland, and Ireland.
Sustained attacks on journalists and news outlets had “a cumulative effect of undermining confidence in journalism overall”, it said.
“Looking at the five countries where trust in news fell the most this year, the reductions in overall trust are much larger than the change in trust ratings for any individual news brand,” the report added.