Wrote: Etrit Rexhepi
An image is published with the caption "CONFIRMED – LUMIR ABDIXHIKU SUPPORTS VJOSA OSMANI".
it CONTENT was published on Monday (February 9) on Facebook by the page called "Gazeta Minuti".
While this post is captioned "The leader of the LDK has confirmed that he has given full support to Vjosa Osmani.".
What's wrong with the content?
Hibrid.info noted that the content does not clarify what type of support is involved, presenting it in a generalized and unclear manner.
As of the time of writing, the post has received over 600 likes and over 200 comments. The page that posted it has over 234 followers. According to the information provided, the page in question states that it is a “Media/News Company”. The page in question has an address that appears to be in Germany and also appears to be present on other social media (see here).
It also has a published portal domain with the same name (see here).
Hibrid.info searched using the search engine “Google”, with the words “lumir abdixhiku”. The search results for the last 24 hours showed articles published by credible media, where it was reported that the leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), Lumir Abdixhiku, met with the country’s president Vjosa Osmani at the latter’s invitation to inform her about the Peace Board, where Kosovo is among the founding states (see here).
These contents reported that Abdixhiku, after being informed by Osmani about this initiative, expressed LDK's support for the same (see here, here and here.
The media that reported the news were based on a post on the LDK leader's Facebook account, content that hibrid.info also encountered after checking (see here).
As can be seen from this publication, the support that Abdixhiku offered to Osman has to do with the Peace Board.
Why can the publication being addressed be misleading?
President Osmani's mandate ends in April of this year. She has publicly stated that she intends to run for another term as president (see here). Article 4 of the Law on the President specifies that any citizen of the Republic of Kosovo, who meets the criteria set forth in this same law, may be nominated as a candidate for President of the Republic of Kosovo, provided that he or she obtains the signatures of at least thirty members of the Assembly of Kosovo. Members of the Assembly may only sign for one candidate for President of the Republic of Kosovo (see here).
Article 86 of the Constitution of Kosovo stipulates that the election of the President shall be by a two-thirds majority of all members of the Assembly. If no candidate receives a two-thirds (2/3) majority in the first two ballots, a third ballot shall be held between the two candidates who received the highest number of votes in the second ballot, and the candidate who receives the majority of all members of the Assembly shall be elected President of Kosovo (see here).
While the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly, in point 5 of Article 106, states that for the first and second vote to be valid, at least 80 deputies must participate in the vote, while at least 61 deputies must participate in the third vote (see here).
In the early elections of December 28, the Albanian political entities that won seats in the Kosovo Assembly are the Vetëvendosje Movement (LVV) with 57 deputies, the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) with 22 seats, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) with 15, and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) with a total of 6. Consequently, the election of the president after the end of Osmani's mandate will be difficult without the cooperation of the Albanian parliamentary political entities.
In these circumstances, when Osmani has expressed his intention to serve another term in this position, near the end of the current term, the lack of clarity about what support the LDK leader gave Osmani could be misread as support for taking the post of president.
This possibility is also supported by the content of the comments in the post under discussion, where in many of them it is understood that readers have perceived the content as an expression of Abdixhiku's support for Osmani in her journey for the second time, towards the post of president.
Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani was one of the 19 signatories of the Peace Board, a mechanism established by US President Donald Trump for the reconstruction of Gaza, destroyed by the two-year war (see here).
Analyze:
An image was published on Facebook with the caption that Lumir Abdixhiku has given support to Vjosa Osmani, without clarifying what kind of support this is.
The post is based on a statement by Abdixhiku, where he expressed LDK's support for the Peace Board initiative, where Kosovo figures as one of the founding states.
Given that Osmani has publicly expressed his ambition for a second term as President, the content discussed leaves the possibility for the reader to accept it as political support for this very issue.
Therefore, based on the working methodology, hibrid.info assesses the content as "Manipulation of facts".
Reasoning:
“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.