Wrote: Fatbardh Dema
An opinion piece by an American professor, who talks about the US elections and their impact on the Western Balkans, specifically Kosovo, has been broadcast as a done deal.
"BAD NEWS/ Americans leave, military base in Kosovo closes," is the title of the article published today (November 5) on the Albanian-language content portal, "ntv.al".
How does the truth stand?
After fact-checking, it was determined that the title does not correspond to the content. Only when clicking on the article does it clarify that this is a statement made by American professor David Phillips, director of the Program on Peacebuilding and Human Rights at Columbia University.
Phillips, in a statement to Radio Free Europe (RFE/RL), said that he expects that if Donald Trump is re-elected president of the United States, the American military base in Kosovo, Bondsteel, would be gradually eliminated.
After conducting online research, hibrid.info has confirmed that the article published on "ntv.al" was first published by Radio Free Europe, but that the portal that retransmits Professor Phillips' statement changed the title. (see here)
REL published the article dated November 3 titled "With Harris, little hope for Kosovo, with Trump, turmoil."
What did Phillips say about REL?
"One of the first things Trump will do is assess American policy and security interests. I would expect [the US military base in Kosovo] Bondsteel to be phased out. Also, any steps to bring Kosovo into NATO would be put on hold," Phillips told the Expose program. Radio Free Europe.
The article from ntv.al has also been published on the "NTV Televizione" channel on YouTube, with the same title: "BAD NEWS/ Americans leave, military base in Kosovo closes".
Analyze:
The claim "Americans are leaving, military base in Kosovo is closing", published on the "ntv.al" portal, is not accurate.
This is a statement made by Professor David Phillips, director of the Program on Peacebuilding and Human Rights at Columbia University, who had said that if Trump is re-elected as US president, he expects the US military base in Kosovo, "Bondsteel", to be gradually eliminated.
Meanwhile, the title placed in the "ntv.al" article made this statement a fait accompli.
Therefore, based on the working methodology, hibrid.info assesses this content as "Disinformation" and "Clickbait".
Reasoning:
"Disinformation" is defined as information content that contains a "mix" of inaccurate sources or even half-truthful attributes, and that is created and/or distributed with the deliberate intention of causing harm. The motive behind the producers/distributors of disinformation content lies in achieving a political, financial, psychological or social goal.
“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.