Questions Asked in Datafolha Survey Lead to Controversy

07/21/2016 - 05h29

"In your opinion, what would be better for the country: President Rouseff's return to office or the continuity of the Michel Temer administration until the end of the mandate in 2018?" Three percent of those interviewed in a Datafolha survey held on July 14 and 15 spontaneously answered the question by saying that they preferred new elections.

The percentage of those who are in favor of new elections, however, rises to 62% when the question was asked directly: "A situation that could lead to new presidential elections in Brazil would be if President Dilma Rousseff and Interim President Michel Temer both resigned. Are you in favor or against Michel Temer and Dilma Rousseff resigning so that new presidential elections are held this year?"

The difference between the results became controversial on the internet after "The Intercept" disclosed on Tuesday, July 19, a text accusing Folha of committing "journalistic fraud to boost Interim President Temer".

Written by American journalist Glenn Greenwald (a cofounder of the website) and Brazilian contributor Erick Dau, the text says that, with the publication of the report and the tables on the Datafolha website, "it is now evident that - whether through corrupt motives or utter ineptitude - a journalistic fraud has been committed by Folha."

Greenwald says that the evidence of the fraud is the fact that the question offered only two options: the return of President Rousseff or the continuation of the Temer administration until 2018, while the table published on Sunday, July 17, also shows the results of two answers that had been given spontaneously: "neither" and "new elections."

"There is no mistake, and both Folha and Datafolha acted with transparency," says Alessandro Janoni, director of survey of the institute.

Janoni says that the surveyors take into account the spontaneous answers to detect relevant options that had not been mentioned in the direct question. "If an alternative is cited spontaneously by more than 1% of those interviewed, then it must be highlighted."

Janoni stresses that there are tables and reports published on the website that allow access to details of the questionnaire and the survey.

On the non-disclosure of some points of the report, Sérgio Dávila, the executive editor of Folha, says that the news report team has the prerogative to choose what it believes is journalistically more relevant at the moment that it decides to publish a survey.

"The result of the issue regarding the double resignation of Rousseff and Temer did not seem particularly informative, as it virtually repeats the tendency shown in the previous survey and due to the change in the current political scenario, when this possibility is no longer taken into account."

Dávila stresses that it is not unusual for Datafolha to ask more questions than those that are ultimately used in the articles. The entire survey can be found here.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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