MOSCOW (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko – Earlier in the day, a new poll conducted by ICM Research exclusively for Sputnik revealed that 56 percent of European and US residents believe that mainstream media of their respective countries is influenced by politicians and big business.
"There has been a growing corporate pressure on the media from big business controlling them," John Cherian said.
He highlighted the ongoing practice of "dumbing down of news."
"It is very difficult to prevent businesses from having such great influence on the media. The only way is for the government to play a more active role," Cherian stated.
According to the ICM poll, some 75 percent of Italians, 69 percent of Spaniards, and 60 percent of French said they doubted the objectivity of mainstream media, while 53 percent of US citizens shared a similar opinion.
Over 8,200 people in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the United States shared their views on the media impartiality with ICM Research on May 1-4, 2015.
