Less than a third of UK citizens think the BBC has a good performance record in accurate news reporting, according to a survey carried out on behalf of the BBC World Service.
Just 29% of 1,003 Britons polled in the survey - part of a global report into perceptions of media freedom - said they rated publicly-funded news organisations, meaning the BBC in Britain, positively.
A further 43% said the BBC's performance was "average" in reporting news, while 26% said it was poor.
British respondents thought less of their publicly funded news organisation than those in countries such as Venezuela, Russia, Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria.
In fact, Britain came a lowly 11th out of 14 countries polled for the BBC World Service survey.
The survey will come as an embarrassment to the BBC, particularly as it was carried out by the World Service.
A BBC spokeswoman said: "It is always interesting to hear people's views on the BBC. However, BBC News has an 80% reach in the UK.
"We are also seen as the most trusted news provider, especially in times of crisis and for big breaking news stories. This clearly shows the value audiences place in us."
The performance of commercial news organisations in the UK was equally negative, with just 28% of respondents giving a "good" performance rating compared with 43% globally.
This put Britain in 12th place out of the 14 countries surveyed for commercial news organisations.
The largest group of UK respondents - 44% - said commercial news organisations had an average performance in terms of honest and accurate news reporting, while 25% said they were poor.
"While Britons believe strongly in media freedom, they are critical of the accuracy of news reporting by both publicly and privately-funded organisations," the report said.
The survey also found that a large majority of Britons thought the concentration of media ownership in fewer hands was a concern, with 71% saying it was a "major issue", above the global average of 59%.
Along with the US and Germany, Britons are strong advocates of press freedom, with 67% agreeing that it is more important than stability, compared with 56% who share the view globally. Britons are fairly neutral on the freedom that the media has "to report the news accurately, truthfully and without undue bias", with 30% - versus 22% globally - opting for a rating midway between free and not free. The majority of Britons also agree with having a say in news reporting decisions, with 63% - compared with 56% globally - thinking it is important "that people like me have a say in what gets reported in the news", while 35% - 39% globally - prefer to leave such decisions to news organisations.
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