Wrote: Festim Rizanaj
Through articles published on Saturday (March 15), Serbian-language media outlets alleged the "support" that "Pristina is offering to the blockers" in the protest organized today in Belgrade.
These articles were published at the time of the protest organized by Serbian students, who are seeking responsibility for the deaths of 15 people on November 1, 2024, from the collapse of a railway station shelter in Novi Sad.
The articles claimed that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti supports the protesters. They tried to link this to the reporting being done in Kosovo about the protest in Belgrade.
The truth?
Articles published in "alo.rs","b92.net","pink.rs","republika.rs","novosti.rs”And“informer.rs"do not provide any facts that official Pristina supports student protests in Serbia.
These articles reported on the publication of the Serbian flag in the Albanian language media outlet “gazetaexpress.com” and the reporting on the protest in Belgrade. According to the reports, “the media under Kurti’s regime now publish pictures of the Serbian flag, only because it is in the interest of Pristina.”
"This flag is only valid for Kurti when Serbia burns and is destroyed," the media outlets in question claimed in their articles.
Hibrid.info has also found the article "gazetaexpress.com", which reported on the situation in Serbia on the eve of the announced protest. There is no connection between the protest and Kosovo.
On March 15, today, a large protest has been announced in Belgrade by students who have been blocking universities for several months. They are demanding political and criminal responsibility for the collapse of a concrete shelter at the Novi Sad railway station that killed 15 people in November 2024. Before the protest in Belgrade, there were also rallies in several other cities in Serbia. (see here)
Even after these protests, there have been ongoing reports in Serbia that have attempted to link Kosovo institutions with support for the protests. Hibrid.info has analyzed such conspiratorial narratives in Serbia about internal chaos and student protests and the “connection with Albin Kurti”. (see here and here)
Analyze:
Without providing any facts, some media outlets in Serbia have once again linked the figure of Kosovo's Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, to the student protests there.
In reporting on the day of the protest in Belgrade, the media in Serbia used a report in Kosovo, which they interpreted as Kurti's support for the protesters. The reporting was only about the protest and did not provide any basis for the claim in Serbia.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info considers these claims to be "conspiracy theories".
Reasoning:
"Conspiracy theories" are considered to be informational content that contains a false or unverifiable description of a phenomenon, event or person, presenting it as part or the result of a secret plan ("conspiracy"). The characteristic of these contents is that they present a series of claims, presented as facts, between which cause-effect relationships are established, without providing any reliable evidence.