Kosovo has continued to be an important topic for the creation of controversial and false news in pro-government Serbian and Russian media, pursuing a state propaganda agenda.
Historical moments and important political events in and around Kosovo have continued to be interpreted one-sidedly by pro-government media in Serbia and sections of Russian state media in the Balkans. Topics related to Kosovo, but also to other countries in the Balkans with Western-oriented policies, have been used to create disinformation and fake news by these media.
The connection between the political agenda of Serbia and Russia with a chain of media outlets in Serbia and the region is also confirmed by a research prepared by the Sarajevo-based fact-checking platform, "Raskrinkavanke.ba". According to this research, the publication and distribution of such propaganda articles is carried out by media outlets close to the Russian state media "Sputnik" and the Serbian public media outlet "RTS". Such media outlets, according to this study, also appear to be those highlighted in the hibrid.info analyses.
During this year, hibrid.info has managed to debunk some of the reporting in pro-government media in Serbia and Russia, which is related to propaganda against Kosovo, the Albanian issue, and other countries in the region with a pro-Western orientation: