Wrote: Fatbardh Dema
It has been claimed that the Vetëvendosje Movement MP, Armend Muja, has stated that "the PDK is dominating the campaign."
The publication was made by the "newsilir" account on TikTok., on November 24. In it, Muja is seen saying that the Democratic Party of Kosovo is dominating the field. “Armend Muja of VV finally speaks the truth: PDK is dominating the campaign,” is the caption placed on the video.
But what is the truth?
While the video presents Muja as a member of the political party Lëvizja Vetëvendosje (LVV), after verifying the facts, it turns out that the video is old and from the time when Muja was a political analyst and not an MP for this party. In this video, he was talking about the 2019 parliamentary elections and not about the current situation, on the eve of the parliamentary elections of February 9, 2025.
Hibrid.info has found the video from that time in which Muja, in his capacity as a political analyst, spoke on the show. "Debat Plus" on RTV Dukagjini, on September 9, 2019, on the eve of the elections of October 6 of that year.
The statement was taken from the show (minutes 20:00-20:29) and was published on TikTok by the "newsilir" account.
"This week, I mean, look at the field and social networks, and the airtime is dominated by PDK and AAK-PSD. Look at the airtime, this week from the 6th and still continuing, PDK is dominating. I also think that three weeks ago I gave PDK 0 chances to win, two weeks ago I gave it 20 percent. Today I think that they are still contenders to win"
Muja was officially announced as a member of the political party, Vetëvendosje, on January 12, 2021 (Announcement by the leader of VV, Albin KurtiMuja became a deputy in the elections of February 14 of that year (results – CEC)
The publication has received 81.9 thousand views as of the moment of treatment by hibrid.info. The publication has received over 1500 likes and 92 comments.
Analyze:
The "newsilir" account on TikTok has published a video in which Armend Muja says that PDK is dominating the campaign.
Considering the caption "Armend Muja of VV finally speaks the truth: PDK is dominating the campaign" and the current situation on the political scene, it is implied that the statement is current.
But after verifying the facts, it turns out that Muja made this statement in 2019, in his capacity as a political analyst. He joined Vetëvendosje in 2021.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses this 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.