Hibrid.info marks International Fact-Checking Day and discusses the state of information disorder in Kosovo
Pristina, [02.04.2025] – On the occasion of International Fact-Checking Day, which is marked on April 2, the fact-checking platform hibrid.info organized a conference to discuss the state of information disorder in Kosovo with panelists Xhemajl Rexha, president of the Association of Kosovo Journalists (AGK), Alban Zeneli, professor at the Department of Journalism at the University of Pristina, and Pajtim Gashi from NDI.
During the conference, findings on the current situation of disinformation were announced, including societal vulnerability, misinformation practices, and external influence.
Festim Rizanaj, researcher at the HIBRID platform, emphasized that political polarization, socio-economic factors and lack of media literacy have created an environment susceptible to fake news and manipulation. He also presented the practices of misinformation, where the main disinformation platforms such as Facebook and TikTok are important sources for the distribution of fake news, conspiracy theories and manipulation of facts. Traditional media have also been affected by practices such as clickbait and the publication of unverified information.
Rizanaj mentioned that the main topics of disinformation have included security, election and political issues, including the arming of the KSF, the election campaign and other issues such as the claims of the release of former KLA leaders and the opening of the Ibar Bridge. He also spoke about external influence, highlighting the spread of disinformation comparing Kosovo to Crimea and linking political developments in Kosovo to those in Serbia.
In the panel discussion, Xhemajl Rexha, president of the Association of Kosovo Journalists (AGK), pointed out the lack of a special department in the media in Kosovo, through which the facts would be verified before the publication of content by journalists. Rexha also mentioned social media as a source of publishing misinformation, for which he praised, as he said, the good work of hibrid.info, in detecting content circulating in the digital space.
The Chairman of the AJK recommended to journalists that they first stop publishing fake news and then fight misinformation.
Meanwhile, Alban Zeneli, professor at the Department of Journalism at UP, spoke about the external influence on public discourse in Kosovo. While mentioning cases where Russia has used Kosovo to justify expansionist policies towards the countries of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Zeneli showed that the audience in Kosovo is also a target of potential Russian influence. According to the university professor, Russia, through disinformation narratives, aims to keep Serbs in Kosovo away from Kosovo's institutions, while for Albanians it aims to distance them from belief in Western values.
Zeneli demanded that the Government of Kosovo react to external disinformation narratives, while he gave suggestions to the media to base their competition against each other on professionalism and transparency.
All panelists agreed on the need and necessity of establishing Media Education as a subject in schools, starting from primary education.
During the conference, recommendations were presented to strengthen resistance to disinformation, including: integrating Media Education in schools, creating mechanisms to address disinformation narratives from Serbia and Russia, strengthening media capacities for fact-checking, and reinforcing the role of civil society in monitoring disinformation.
Complete analysis of information disorder