The fact-check of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki on 10 April:
https://eufactcheck.eu/factcheck/mostly-true-huge-crowd-of-3000-supporters-of-the-golden-dawn-party-gathers-for-the-announcement-its-european-parliament-ticket/ concerns a publication that refers to the event of the Greek far-right party Golden Dawn for the announcement of its prospective MEPs. The publication has been presented and analyzed in a misleading way as excessive titles were used that do not correspond to reality and aim to misinform and create false impressions to the public. In particular, the number of people attending the event is only a few hundred and not three thousand, according to the Pronews website, the only media that broadcasted the event. At the same time, there is the absence of the name of the journalist, which creates advertorial suspicions. The party’s press statement was screened and interpreted correctly and responds to reality, but the title is misleading. The choice for this title:
“Huge Crowd of 3,000 supporters of the Golden Dawn party gathers for the announcement its European Parliament ticket “ gives false impressions regarding the appeal of the extreme right-wing parties in Greece and, more broadly, in Europe.
This particular claim was chosen by the fact-checking students because the rise of populism and the far-right parties in the forthcoming European elections in May is a matter of both Greek and European society. The articles selected were retrieved with ease and without delay, as well as the original source data. However, we encountered difficulty in identifying a second source confirming these claims and that made it harder for us to identify it. This particular story was chosen as we wanted to highlight the difference between the actual event and its presentation by various media, which often use excessive and misleading claims simply to increase their audience. The audio-visual material of the news was identified with that of the source and by observing only the photos we can easily realize that the attendees were a few hundred.
Ioanna Georgia Eskiadi, School of Journalism & MC, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR
