Telex is Hungary's most widely used source for online news, according to the Reuters Institute's annual report published on Tuesday. The study also revealed that Hungarians' confidence in the media remains exceptionally low and it continues to decline. As in previous years, Hungarians consider RTL, HVG, and Telex to be the most reliable news sources, while the number of those who consider the public media, Index, and Magyar Nemzet to be credible has fallen sharply.
The media research institute based at Oxford University surveyed the state of the press in 48 countries, engaging nearly 100,000 people.
According to the survey carried out for the study, Telex is the most widely read Hungarian news outlet in terms of weekly reach (28 percent), and our paper was also named by the highest number of respondents when asked which news portals they visit at least three days a week (15 percent).
Telex is followed by Index, 24.hu, and 444 in the readership rankings for online press products. Among television viewers, most watch the news on RTL (36 percent), followed by TV2 (21), ATV (19), HírTV (12), and M1 (11).
In contrast to the ranking published by the Reuters Institute, according to the figures from DKT-Gemius, the official Hungarian online readership measurement service, Telex does not (yet) top the rankings. This is because Gemius uses a tracking code to count the number of visits to a website (including one-time clicks from Google, Facebook, or ads) while the Reuters Institute list is based on public opinion polls, specifically examining conscious news consumption.
The list of the most reliable news sources in Hungary according to the Reuters survey is again topped by RTL, HVG and Telex, while the bottom of the list is mostly occupied by pro-government media outlets.
According to Hungarians, Blikk is the least trustworthy of the major press outlets, but less than a quarter of respondents find the public media and TV2 to be reliable.
Of the 15 Hungarian press outlets listed in the survey, the proportion of those who consider their reporting to be reliable has decreased for all of them. The public media, Magyar Nemzet, and Index saw the biggest drop in ratings on this subject. For all three news sources, the percentage of those who consider their articles trustworthy has fallen by 7 percentage points since last year.
Given the above, it is not surprising that Hungary continues to be at the bottom of the table in terms of trust in the press. The proportion of those who said they generally consider the Hungarian press to be reliable fell from 23 percent to 22 percent, which is tied with Greece for the lowest rating among the 48 countries surveyed and far below the overall average of 40 percent.
Even more striking is the perception of public media in Hungary when compared to other European countries. In the 25 European countries surveyed by the Reuters Institute, an average of 60 percent of citizens consider their country's public media to be credible, while only 23 percent of Hungarians do so. Scandinavian countries and some Western European ones stand out from the crowd. Eighty-five percent of Danes, 83 percent of Finns, and 81 percent of Norwegians consider their country's public media a reliable source of news.
The 170-page study also reveals that the role of social media and video platforms in news consumption has continued to grow worldwide. TikToK remains the most dynamically growing social platform, with a third of Hungarians using it on a weekly basis.
Another significant change over the past year is the emergence of artificial intelligence-powered platforms such as ChatGPT among news sources. According to the study, 15 percent of respondents under the age of 25 are already using this method to search for news.
However, respondents are mostly skeptical about the role of artificial intelligence in the future of news consumption. Although the majority expect AI to make news cheaper and faster to access, they fear that it will also reduce the reliability and verifiability of news.
The public opinion survey used for the study was conducted by YouGov in 48 countries, with approximately 2,000 respondents in each country. The survey was conducted online in January–February 2025. The results of the survey are representative of age, gender, region, and, with the exception of five countries, educational background. The audience and readership figures do not necessarily correspond to the data from market audience measurements, as the reach of press products was examined based on the responses of viewers and readers, thus reflecting which press products the respondents said they consume.