A cleaning medium comprising: a backcoat layer; a nonmagnetic support; and a cleaning layer containing ferromagnetic powder and a binder, in this order, wherein the cleaning layer has projections having a height of 10 nm or higher on a surface of the cleaning layer at a density of from 0.10 to 5.0/.mu.m.sup.2 and a surface microhardness of from 294 to 784 MPa.