Russian network edition «РИА Новости» reports: Nigel Farage, former leader of the British Independence Party (UKIP) and an ardent supporter of the country’s withdrawal from the EU, officially launched the Brexit Party. We verified this statement with an EJTA algorithm and concluded that it is mostly true.
The «РИА Новости» network publication’s note contains a statement (quote) about the creation on April 12 of a new British party, the Brexit Party, which will take part in the elections to the European Parliament. Its leader was the famous British politician Nigel Farage. Below you can see a screenshot of this publication.
First flowchart – statement analysis
Let’s start the verification of the application according to the scheme from EJTA. The first block-scheme – statement analysis. We see that this statement is a fact. So, we can continue. We define the subject of the statement – these are elections in the EP 2019. The next step is to expose what is specifically claimed (what is claimed?): The news speaks about the launching by the British politician of a new party (the Brexit Party), which will take part in the elections to the EP. According to our scheme, statement of factual nature (factual, quantitative claim); it is not vague, but precise in content, because it contains a concrete fact – launching of a new British political party.
There are still a number of indicators — quantitative data base (quantification / fact based on …). In this case, the base / source is not a survey, a survey (research) or official statistics (official stats), but a personal statement by Nigel Farage himself.
Second flowchart – analysis of the author / source
The second block-scheme – the analysis of the author / source – will allow working through and clarifying the source of the statement. The first step is clarification of the author of the statement (claim author?). Judging by the information of «РИА Новости» the author is Nigel Farage. The author’s status (claim author capacity?) Is also understandable – this is a politician, a man from government circles (government).
The second branch in this block – is the definition of the source of a statement (claim source?). In this case, it coincides with the author, and we k now his name and status – British politician Nigel Farage. On the other hand, the source may also be the first press conference of the Brexit Party, which was held on Friday, April 12, 2019 in London. This fact confirms by other Russian online publication «Land of the Soviets». Confirmation is also present in a very famous UK online newspaper «Daily Mail» . And in this case, the status of the source is government.
Third flowchart – factcheck
Finally, we evaluate the application with the help of the third flowchart — faсtcheck. The algorithm calls for searching the primary source’s source material. This means that it is necessary to understand the basis on which the above source has information. The EJTA explains – as a rule, the base is any research, statistics and other written data.
In this case, there are no such documents. The official website of the Brexit Party does not make public any internal protocols of the party that speak of its launch. The fact of launching a new party is confirmed by a special meeting organized by Nigel Farage and the accuracy of which is confirmed by official information on the official website of the party.
Since it is not possible to find this document in open access, according to the scheme from EJTA, we must contact the author or the source of the application directly. But in our situation of the testing use algorithm, it is possible to use another way – to find alternative sources that confirm the investigated statement.
But it is necessary to understand: several reputable world editions, as we see, at once fully confirm the content of the statement that we see in «РИА Новости».
In addition, we managed to find the official Nigel Farage page on Twitter. All posts of politician that appeared after April 11 confirm the fact that he launched a new British party to participate in the elections to the EP.
Thus, having done the actions of the algorithm from EJTA, we can conclude. Not all the points had full compliance, but at the same time several independent networked media and the politician himself on the personal Twitter page confirms the fact of launching by Nigel Farage Brexit Party to run in EU elections. So, we can consider it is true.
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Ildar Saudabaev,
Journalism and mass communications Department
SUSU
