An article published on the satirical portal "Kukunews.net" states that the chairman of the "New Kosovo Alliance" (AKR) and entrepreneur Behgjet Pacolli has allegedly purchased vaccines against COVID-19 to donate them, allegedly, to his party's voters.
This satirical article, reprinted by several other online media outlets, seems to have troubled Pacolli, who has denounced it as fake news. Through a Facebook post, Pacolli called this as untrue, but failed to realize that the source of this article comes from a satirical website.
Pacolli has published on Facebook the "Kukunews.net" article reprinted by the dubious portal "bota.live" and distributed on the "Zemra e shqiptarit" Facebook page.
Behgjet Pacolli's reaction on his Facebook profile:
The now-famous Fake News War has also begun against me. Pseudo-portals on social media have spread a rumor that I will supposedly provide vaccines to those who vote for me. This is FALSE.
The next government, which AKR aims to be in, has the obligation to provide vaccines for all citizens of Kosovo, but without any distinction as to where they vote.
As for such evil tendencies, they are truly disturbing, when it is known that they are not simply sporadic irresponsibility, but well-organized and with the aim of damaging my image and that of the AKR.
Although this campaign is dangerous, it will be futile, because the awareness of Kosovar citizens is too high to be manipulated by such dirty attempts. The victory of the STATEBUILDERS cannot be stopped.
In fact, the "bota.live" portal at the end of the article reprinted by "Kukunews.net" emphasized that it has satirical content, but it seems that it was not noticed by other media outlets and Pacolli himself.
https://www.facebook.com/behgjeti/posts/10164512164175153
Links to the article published on Kukunews.net and reprinted on bota.live:
This article was also published as fake news by several other online media outlets in Kosovo, failing to clarify that it was satirical content.
Links to this article published in several media outlets:
Analyze:
The content of the articles on the portal “Kukunews.net” is all satirical. They also announce this on their Facebook page. Also, the reprint of this article on “Bota.live” was done by re-emphasizing the fact that this content is satire. But as can be seen, such a thing has not been noticed by Behgjet Pacolli and some online media.
Reasoning:
The “Satire” rating includes content that uses premeditated news that uses satire to portray reality. This is also a way of reporting that is not problematic, if the media manages to argue that it is satirical content.
The purpose of including this assessment in the methodology is to indicate this type of content in situations where it can be claimed to be a genuine media report and when it becomes potentially harmful in the event of further transmission without being able to clearly explain that it is a satirical text. So in such cases, if a text fails to clarify that it has satirical content, it may be understood as genuine and, as a result, may create a wrong opinion in the audience. However, the media that publishes this type of content cannot be on one of the negative lists solely because of the publication of this type of content.