A video from Youtube, titled "Sensational news from The Hague: This is when Hashim Thaçi is released from prison!” was shared on Thursday (August 6) on Facebook.
content It was distributed on the website of the Albanian-based media outlet, "Dritare TV" and has the title of the video material as its caption.
What's wrong with the content?
The title presents one of the possible outcomes of the legal process as a fait accompli, while the legal process against the country's former president, Hashim Thaçi, has not yet concluded.
Hibrid.info checked the distributed video material. After clicking on the content, a video clip from an interview with Astrit Huskaj, the former coordinator of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) war, was displayed on the show “Dekalog”, which is broadcast on “Dritare TV” (see here).
The guest claims that on September 16, the confirmed date for the announcement of the verdict against Hashim Thaçi and others accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity as former KLA leaders, Thaçi will be released (see here).
Huskaj's transcribed statement extracted from the video footage:
"It's expected on September 16th, which means it's here, the verdict will be announced. They've confirmed it, they're not going to postpone it now that they've even set the time."
Question: Yes, what time?
"10 o'clock. Yes, how long it will take, we don't know, the process will start soon. We are happy that everyone was released and we hope that everyone will be released. Some information we have says that one of them will be sentenced, but Hashim will be released."
Hibrid.info researched the website of the Specialist Chambers and the Office of the Special Prosecutor, the institution based in The Hague, where the trial against Thaçi, Selim, Krasniqi and Veseli has been taking place for more than five years now (see here).
It was found that on July 1 of this year, it was announced that the verdict in the Thaçi et al. case would be announced on September 16 of this year (see here).
Which shows that we still do not have a confirmed epilogue for this legal process.
However, the title of the content discussed is formulated in such a way that it presents Hashim Thaçi's release as a confirmed fact. It is written as a factual statement, without disclosing that this information is a claim by a specific person and not an official announcement or confirmed fact.
Analyze:
The title of a video material "Sensational news from The Hague: This is when Hashim Thaçi is released from prison!" presents Thaçi's release as a certain event.
However, the video is not about an official announcement, but about a claim made by the guest in an interview.
A check of the official sources of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers showed that only the date for the announcement of the verdict in the court case against Thaçi and others was set for September 16.
The court's decision will determine the end of the process and the consequences for the accused, while Thaçi's release has not been confirmed by any official source.
Based on its working methodology, Hibrid.info evaluates this content as "Clickbait".
rationale
“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.