*The article from the Serbian-language media outlet "Kurir.rs" was corrected after being edited by hibrid.info (see here corrected article)
Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia (OGS) reported on Wednesday (June 3) for an incident that occurred in the village of Binçë, Viti.
This report alleges that a member of the Serbian community was physically attacked by a person of Albanian nationality.
The case is presented by this office as an incident that occurred during the election campaign in Kosovo, while the reporting also mentions the acting Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, and the acting Minister for Communities and Returns, Nenad Rashic.
What's wrong with this claim?
After verification of the facts conducted by hibrid.info, based on the 24-hour report of the Kosovo Police, it was confirmed that this case occurred on May 14, while the suspect for committing this crime was arrested on June 3. (see photo below).
The election campaign for the June 7 elections started on May 28 (see here). So, the above-mentioned case occurred before the opening of the election campaign for political entities.
Rashiq's involvement
The ZQS report also mentions the names of Kurti and Rashiq.The incident occurred in the middle of the election campaign, when Albin Kurti and his associate Nenad Rašić, through their actions and rhetoric, promoted a policy of intolerance towards the Serbian people, which stimulated extremists and protesters who then saw Serbs as legitimate targets.", it says there.
The OQS is trying to link Rašić's name to this case, after he, in an interview with "KosovaPress", accused the Serbian List and political structures linked to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić of systematic pressure on Kosovo Serbs on the eve of the June 7 elections.
However, this statement by Rashiq is not related to the incident that occurred in the village of Binçë, as his interview in "KosovaPress" was published on May 18. So, four days after the incident occurred (see here and here).
The OCG's reporting was also published in several Serbian-language media outlets (see here, here, here, here, and here).
Analyze
The claim made by the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia that the attack on a member of the Serbian community in the village of Binçë occurred during the election campaign in Kosovo is unfounded.
Verification of the facts shows that the incident occurred on May 14, two weeks before the start of the election campaign for the June 7 elections, which began on May 28.
Likewise, the attempt to link the case to the statements of the acting Minister for Communities and Returns, Nenad Rašić, is not based on the chronology of events. Rašić's interview, in which he accused the Serbian List and political structures linked to Vučić of systematic pressure on Kosovo Serbs, was published on May 18, four days after the incident in Binča.
Based on these facts, based on the working methodology, hibrid.info qualifies this reporting by the OQS as "Manipulation of facts".
rationale
“Factual manipulation” is a rating given to informational content that uses facts known to be accurate but interprets them in a distorted manner. These reports typically use accurate information to draw incorrect conclusions or claims, thereby misleading consumers of media content about the actual meaning of the facts presented.