Newspaper carries ‘clarification’ in which it states that the total headlined in its front page article was based on a flawed opinion poll question
The Sunday Express has admitted that a front page story it ran last month, “12m Turks say they’ll come to UK”, was false.
In a lengthy page 2 “clarification” yesterday (19 June), the newspaper stated that its article was based on a flawed opinion survey question “and that the results of the poll were inaccurate as a result.”
The Express said its report, which stated that “more than 12 million Turkish citizens plan to move to Britain when the country joins the EU”, had been questioned by both statisticians and readers.
It explained that it arrived at the 12m claim following a poll carried out on its behalf by Konda, a Turkish research group, which asked 2,685 people this question:
“If Turkey becomes a full member of the EU, and Britain remains in the EU, would you, or any members of your family, consider relocating to the UK?”
But the Express conceded that the question – which elicited positive answers from 15.8% of the sample – was flawed because it was “open to interpretation… and therefore cannot be used to make a definite prediction of numbers.”
Respondents were not asked whether they were referring to themselves or to a family member, or members, which was an obvious omission.
It meant that it was impossible to gauge from the reponses the true number of those considering migrating. It could have been be higher or lower than the 12m stated.
As for the 12m figure, the paper arrived at it by extrapolating that 15.8% of the entire Turkish population [of 77m] would be 12.16m. Such extrapolation, it claimed, was “usual practice in reporting poll results.”
The Sunday Express concluded: “We arrived at the figure quoted in good faith. We provided a link to the full polling data online.”
It also pointed out that it did quote Malcolm Rifkind, of the group Britain Stronger in Europe, as saying that Turkish membership of the EU is “simply not on the cards.”
But it did not say that Rifkind’s quotes were tucked away at the end of its lengthy article.
Nor did the paper apologise to readers for having misled them by running a prejudicial story during the run-up to the crucial EU referendum.
And it clearly did not think it appropriate to put some kind of reference to its “mistake” on yesterday’s front page, as it should have done, because its “clarification” amounted to a complete retraction of its front page story.