Page "New Newspaper" on Facebook published today (May 15) a post with the description "Good news for all mothers and children", accompanied by an image of the acting Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, and the caption: "ALBIN KURTI GIVES THE BIG NEWS! CHILDREN'S BENEFITS INCREASE BY 90 EUROS, FOR MIDWIFERY 500 EUROS, THIS IS THE DATE".
A link was also placed in the comments that led to a article with similar title.
The truth?
After fact-checking conducted by hibrid.info, it was determined that the title appearing in the article and post is incorrect.
After opening the article, it is clarified that this is not an approved decision, but a promise by Prime Minister Kurti made during a roundtable organized by the Ministry of Labor, Family and Values of the Liberation War, in the context of marking International Family Day.
In that statement, Kurti said that in the full mandate, which they aim to once again, child allowances aim to double from 60 to 90 euros, while maternity allowances, which are currently 325.9 euros, aim to increase to 500 euros per month.
So, the headline in the content published by "Gazeta Re" incorrectly presents a political promise as a completed decision to increase child and maternity benefits.
Hibrid.info also found the video with Kurti's pledge to increase the allowances, which was published by the official website of the information portal "indeksonline.net" (see here).
What did Kurt say?
"For the first time in Kosovo, we have started applying allowances from which over 400.000 children have benefited. When we started with 10 and 20 euros - there was mockery and ridicule for such a policy. And today, every family that meets the conditions receives allowances of 30 to 45 euros, depending on the number of children. Meanwhile, our commitment is that in the full mandate, which we aim to once again, we will double the allowances for children from 60 to 90 euros," he said.
"In parallel with this, we have started with the allowances for mothers, from which more than 80 thousand mothers have benefited. Just like for children, here too we found zero. It started with 170 euros per month, currently it is 325.9 euros, but with the aim of increasing it to 500 euros per month," he added (see here).
Analyze
A Facebook post from the "Gazeta Re" page presents the increase in child and maternity benefits as a fait accompli.
After verifying the facts, it was confirmed that this is not an approved decision, but a promise made by Kurti for a future increase in allowances if a full governing mandate is achieved.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses this content as "Disinformation" and "Clickbait".
rationale
"Disinformation" is defined as information content that contains a "mix" of inaccurate sources or even half-truthful attributes, and that is created and/or distributed with the deliberate intention of causing harm. The motive behind the producers/distributors of disinformation content lies in achieving a political, financial, psychological or social goal.
“Clickbait” is considered to be informational content whose title is general and does not disclose the location of the event, context and relevance. Such texts and articles aim to attract the attention of the audience with sensational headlines with misleading consequences, which do not accurately clarify the content of the article. “Clickbait” headlines are mainly made to attract readability in the case of media publications and/or to earn from clicks in the case of commercial publications.