Trust in news in South Africa has increased but the media environment is becoming an increasingly toxic terrain of mis/disinformation, of media titles being co-opted into propaganda, and of coordinated attacks on the credibility of individual journalists. 

The Croatian news media are characterised by largely foreign-owned leading TV news channels and legacy news publishers still suffering from the pandemic’s impact on advertising revenues. News use and trust have declined after last year’s COVID boost. 

Press freedom faces unprecedented strain in Hong Kong as news outlets critical of the Hong Kong and Chinese governments have been shut down and senior executives arrested. Meanwhile, further waves of COVID-19 infection have continued to adversely affect the finances of media companies.

Governments and the media tried to unite the country in the battle against COVID-19, while journalists struggled to provide clarity among often contradictory messages about the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated some of the historical weaknesses of the Italian media sector, contributing to the decline of overall revenues, the fall in newspaper readership, and the lowering of the editorial standards adopted in news reporting.