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14 comments

[–] smallpond [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

@unruly @E-werd

YouGov.de were nice enough to reply to my email. They confirmed the survey's existence and said it was commissioned by https://www.frieden-geht.de/ hence they cannot disseminate the results themselves.

Some comments on the survey can be found on https://www.frieden-geht.de/ under "30. MAI 2018", including a link to the survey results, or at least the results that frieden-geht.de wish to release.

I think this vindicates my initial impression that this is not-fake-news (but the journalistic standards could certainly be improved).

[–] E-werd 2 points (+2|-0) Edited

Wow dude, you've taken this pretty far. I'm legitimately impressed, I appreciate that.

That said, as @unruly mentioned, I'd still question the legitimacy of a survey about exporting arms to a specific country commissioned by an organization that is expressly against exporting arms to anywhere. Yeah, the people they surveyed don't want arms going to Turkey but they're probably just as opposed to sending arms almost anywhere else in a current state of war, too.

It's a judgement call to me--not that I have a dog in this fight to begin with.

Translation courtesy of Google Translate:

We demand:

  • War weapons and armaments must not be exported!

Important steps on this path are:

  • No export of war weapons and armaments to human rights violating and warring states
  • Export ban on small arms and ammunition
  • No state Hermes guarantees to hedge arms exports
  • No licenses for replicating German weapons of war

EDIT: To be clear, I'd agree with the sentiment. I'm just arguing journalistic integrity. We both seem to agree on that at different levels regardless.

[–] smallpond [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

@unruly

Yeah, I was aware of the organisation's mission, and didn't think it worthy of mentioning explicitly. That in itself is not something that concerns me - I'm not concerned by the lack of authorship on the article(s) either, as people who speak out against Turkey can face personal consequences.

Obviously I'm concerned by not linking sources for what the articles are saying (I can't imagine why you wouldn't). Perhaps most of all, I'm concerned that YouGov.de said they couldn't communicate the results of the survey to me directly, and apparently, couldn't even link me to the frieden-geht.de page that does give the results. This makes me wonder if results have only been selectively reported. There's even potential for frieden-geht.de to present false results as it looks like YouGov.de can't be bothered checking up on what they're saying - however, I think the risks involved in doing this would be too great for frieden-geht.de. Looks like frieden-geht.de wanted to hedge their bets, and have the option of keeping the survey results to themselves had they not been favorable.

[–] [Deleted] 1 points (+1|-0)

I don't doubt the survey (more than most other surveys) but I think it's been picked up for political purposes by organisations that may have an agenda. Thanks for digging, I think that is what will make this sub worthwhile.