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Telegram has displaced television as the most widely used source of news in Uzbekistan, but a wide gap between reach and credibility marks the country’s shifting media landscape, according to the first national media-consumption study presented in Tashkent on 2 November.
The survey, conducted between 8 and 19 September through face-to-face interviews with 1,411 adults drawn from all 14 regions of the country, found that 51.6 percent of respondents named Telegram channels as their primary route to news. Television came second at 44.6 percent, followed by social networks at 41.6 percent. The sample was split roughly evenly between urban residents (53.9 percent) and rural ones (46.1 percent).
The project was carried out by the Public Fund for the Support and Development of National Mass Media together with the EU Delegation in Uzbekistan, the Presidential Administration’s Media Content Training Centre and the Ijtimoiy Fikr Republican Centre for the Study of Public Opinion.
Trust and reach diverge sharply
Despite Telegram’s dominance in daily use, trust in the platform is strikingly low. Only 11.3 percent of respondents said they trusted Telegram channels, compared with 44.3 percent who trusted television — the most trusted medium in the survey. News websites fared even worse, earning the confidence of just 7.4 percent of participants.
Television also retains a substantial audience in absolute terms: 67.5 percent of respondents said they watch TV content. Among individual channels, O’zbekiston 24 stood out clearly, named as the main information source by 41.7 percent of television viewers and rated the most reliable channel by 52.8 percent. Milliy TV, Zo’r TV and Sevimli TV were also cited among the most-used channels.
Age shapes platform preference
Media habits diverge markedly by generation. Among 18-to-24-year-olds, 66.2 percent rely on Telegram and 54.4 percent use social networks for news. Among respondents aged 55 and over, television dominates at 77.4 percent.
Telegram’s overall penetration is exceptionally high: 86.1 percent of all survey participants said they use the messaging app. Among those who use social platforms, Instagram is the clear leader, with 92.7 percent of social-media users on the platform. Social networks as a whole are used by 64.8 percent of respondents.
Speed was the main reason people gave for choosing digital sources, cited by 48.6 percent, while 31 percent valued the ability to access content at any time.
Radio fades; information gaps persist
Radio occupies a marginal position in the media diet: only 21.9 percent of respondents listen to radio programmes, with the highest share among the 35-to-44 age group (26.9 percent) and the lowest among 18-to-24-year-olds (16.7 percent).
The survey also identified a mismatch between what audiences want and what media provides. While 56 percent of respondents follow domestic Uzbek news and 40 percent track international events, 41.3 percent said they lack sufficient information on prices, incomes, employment and social support. A further 40.6 percent pointed to a shortage of coverage of everyday problems. Health, citizens’ legal rights, public services and education were also flagged as under-covered topics.
On quality, 27.6 percent said they wanted more in-depth analytical reporting and 22.5 percent called for more balanced presentation of different viewpoints. Respondents also highlighted a need for investigative journalism.
Rural scepticism and the fake-news problem
Rural and urban residents assessed media credibility differently. Some 41.2 percent of rural respondents said they encounter false or unreliable information on news websites and online outlets, compared with 31.6 percent of urban respondents. Rural residents were also more likely to question media objectivity — 39.2 percent versus 27.9 percent among city dwellers.
Fake news emerged as the single most-cited threat to the media environment, named by 46.6 percent of all participants. Respondents said they encounter misinformation most often on YouTube, Telegram and social networks. In response, 77.4 percent of those surveyed said they support stricter legal liability for media outlets that spread false information.
Overall, 49.7 percent of participants rated freedom of speech in Uzbekistan as high. The survey’s organisers said a second phase of the project will involve training workshops for journalists, press-service staff and bloggers across six regions of the country.