David Farrar: 2025 Trust in Journalism survey

The 2025 AUT Trust in Journalism Survey has just been released. Key aspects are:

• Only 32% (-21% from 2020) of NZers trust most of the news most of the time

• Trust in news in NZ at 32% is equal to the US at 32% and below Uk 36%, Canada 39% and Australia 40%.

• People on the left mostly trust Radio NZ, TVNZ and mistrust NewstalkZB

• People on the right mostly trust NewstalkZB and mistrust RNZ, TVNZ, Stuff and Newsroom

• The NZ Herald is fairly neutral trusted and distrusted by both right and left

• Labour and Green voters most trust the news

• National, ACT and especially NZ First voters most distrust the news

There is of course a reasons centre-right voters distrust the news. That is because so much of the NZ media is biased against centre-right views. Many accept the viewpoint of the left as automatically correct, because that is where their personal views lie.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders