The online content provided by the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation Yle as well as by national and regional newspapers are the most reliable source of news on the internet. That's according to the results of a survey conducted by News Media Finland, a trade association for newspaper and free newspaper publishers.

Respondents were asked to grade the reliability of online news services on a scale of 1 to 10, with Yle scoring an average of 7.9 and newspapers receiving an average rating of 7.6.

Commercial broadcaster MTV was third with a rating of 6.9, while respondents gave the 'evening newspapers'-such as tabloids Iltalehti and Ilta-Samomat-a rating of 5.7.

The survey into the reliability of online news services by News Media Finland was the first of its kind.

The results revealed that Yle is especially trusted by the over-65 age demographic, while the younger age category-15-24-year-olds-tended to view newspapers as being as reliable as the national broadcaster.

Respondents were also asked to rate the reliability of social media platforms as sources of news, with Youtube receiving a rating of 4.0 and Facebook 3.3.

Trust increasingly important, especially among young people

Almost two-thirds of respondents, or 64 percent, said that trust in news sources is an increasingly important factor in their own media use. The share of this figure was especially high among the 15-24 year old demographic, of whom 70 percent said trust was important.

Another 70 percent of respondents said that news published online by newspaper outlets is as reliable as the news published in the printed editions.

"The reliability of content published online is a matter of course for journalistic news content creators, but it is great to see that people in Finland have also recognised this," News Media Finland's Director of Marketing and Research, Sirpa Kirjonen, said.

The online service provided by Yle and the nation's morning newspapers also received the best marks in the survey in terms of quality.

Pollster IRO Research interviewed 1,000 people for the survey during the month of October.