The Russian news agency "Sputnik", the Serbian language version, on November 19 published a news item with a tendentious headline claiming that "Official Pristina is not allowing medicines to Serbs in northern Kosovo."
This article, titled "A New Strike by Pristina: Serbs Are Not Given Medicine," describes an action by members of the Kosovo Police and Customs in northern Mitrovica, initiated by the Ministry of Health, to check pharmacies that carry medicines with Serbian labels, which does not match what is claimed in the title.
In fact, in this article, the author wanted to present the control to seize these drugs that are sold illegally within the territory of Kosovo as a political attack.
Parts of the "Sputnik.rs" article translated into Albanian:
New blow from Pristina: Serbs are not given medicine
The Kosovo Ministry of Health, in cooperation with Kosovo Customs and Police, raided a pharmacy in North Mitrovica today, in order to seize medicines that are not registered in the Kosovo healthcare system.
“The problem is that our doctors work according to the Serbian system, which means that doctors prescribe medicines that are registered in the Serbian system. If you take an average pharmacy in North Mitrovica, more than 80 percent of the medicines are not registered in the Kosovo and Metohija system, and they have now come to seize those medicines. And in the middle of this pandemic. At the same time, they were not wearing protective equipment themselves and fifteen of them came in,” said Laketić, owner of a pharmacy in north Mitrovica.
Link to the "Sputnik.rs" article:
https://rs-lat.sputniknews.com/vesti/202011191123901116-novi-udar-pristine-srbima-ne-daju-lekove/
On the other hand, officials from the Ministry of Health, specifically the Pharmaceutical Inspectorate, have told Kosovo media that this was a routine inspection of pharmacies in the north.
Link to the announcement published in several media outlets:
https://klankosova.tv/cka-ndodhi-ne-inspektimin-e-barnatores-ne-veri-flasin-nga-msh-ja-dhe-policia/
Analyze:
The Serbian-language version of Sputnik appears to have given a false and tendentious title to the news item describing the event. Based on the fact-checking by Hibrid.info, it is noted that the title of the article by this Russian agency, in addition to being untrue, also contradicts the news item contained in the same article. It can be concluded that this article gives a different direction to the news item, through distortion or hyperbolization. So, it is seen that the Kosovo institutions did not intend to leave the Serbs of northern Kosovo without medicine, as alluded to in the title, but only to conduct regular inspections. For this reason, this article can be considered as "Manipulation of Facts" and "Disinformation".
Reasoning:.
The evaluation as "Manipulation of facts" is given to those media reports that use facts known to be correct, but interpret them in a distorted way. These reports typically use inaccurate information to draw inaccurate conclusions or claims, thereby misdirecting consumers' conclusions of media content in relation to the actual meaning of the facts presented.
A “Disinformation” rating is given to media reporting that contains a “mix” of inaccurate sources or even half-truthful content. This rating will also address reports that have incorrect attributions or headlines that do not reflect the text in terms of information accuracy.