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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Politics & government fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about politics & government. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

12,749 published reviews in this topic

המשרוקית של גלובסPolitics & government

המנהל האזרחי הוא אלפית אחוז ממשרד הביטחון

Publisher’s rating: לא נכון

The review examines statements Benjamin Netanyahu made in response to criticism of coalition agreements announced in late 2022. One statement said the Civil Administration was less than one-thousandth of one percent of the Defense Ministry. The review notes that the statement did not specify how the Civil Administration should be measured, and that it focused primarily on a separate claim about education. It nevertheless checked the Civil Administration’s budget against the quoted figure. [S1]

Deutsche Presse-AgenturPolitics & government

Die EU will den Obst- und Gemüseanbau in Gärten verbieten.

Publisher’s rating: Diese Falschbehauptung kursiert schon seit 2013. Obst- und Gemüseanbau in privaten Gärten ist nicht verboten und die EU wollte das auch nicht verbieten.

The claim arose from a sharepic circulating in November 2022 that presented an alleged EU decision to ban fruit and vegetable growing in gardens. The accompanying text also claimed that growing old and rare varieties would become punishable. The review traces the sharepic to an older blog article referring to a 2013 article, rather than to a newly adopted EU measure. (The article describes the sharepic as saying: “Eu will Obst- und Gemüseanbau in Gärten verbieten”; it also says it “bildet einen alten Blogartikel ab, der auf einen Artikel von 2013 verweist.”) The key distinction is between growing and sharing seeds privately, and regulating their sale or other commercial distribution. The review says EU rules regulate the “Inverkehrbringen” of seeds, meaning their distribution and sale, but that growing rare varieties in one’s own garden and giving them to a neighbour is not prohibited in Germany. It reports that the Federal Plant Variety Office confirmed private gardeners may give away rare varieties and exchange amateur varieties, provided this is not done for commercial or other income-generating purposes. The review also addresses the historical proposal behind the recycled claim. The European Commission had sought to harmonize seed rules in 2013, but the review says this was not a plan to prohibit private cultivation. It reports that the EU pointed to exceptions in the draft and that the Federal Plant Variety Office said there was never a plan to ban or criminalize growing amateur or conservation varieties. The review further notes that the European Parliament rejected the proposed new direction in 2014; a later effort to revise seed rules was underway, but a ban on private cultivation was not part of it.