The article with misinformation from the Kurir.rs medium was corrected after being handled by hibrid.info (see the corrected article). here)
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, during his address yesterday (August 21) after meeting with some of the Serbian political representatives in Kosovo, stated that on July 31, a group of Chechens and Circassians – opponents of the Chechen leader – Ramazan Kadyrov – had stayed in Kosovo. According to him, citing information from the Serbian secret service, the task of these groups was to eliminate armed Serbs in northern Kosovo, and recruit potential soldiers to fight in Ukraine.
According to Vucic, Chechens, opponents of the legitimate president of the Russian Republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, were seen on August 3 in northern Kosovo, where they met Turkish citizen DIH in Zubin Potok.
"The position of the group, which included Ahmed Ruslanovich Bakaev, Idriz Azarsanov, HA and MA, was recorded," Vučić revealed. Vučić does not base these claims on any credible source, because he does not state the local or institutional source of the information.
Vučić's claim received widespread coverage in Serbian media, despite the fact that he also mentioned the points of discussion in Brussels, which became the main news in these media.
Hibrid.info has found that this claim by the Serbian president about the presence of fighters from Chechnya and Circassia, but also the claims about organizing the conflict, became top news mainly in media outlets that are now known to be close to the current Serbian government.
In these media outlets, in their online editions yesterday (August 21), they had put this statement by the Serbian president as the main article and some of them on the front pages of today's (August 22) printed editions.
Serbian media outlet “B92” yesterday (August 21) published the news about Vučić’s claims under the title “Chechens and Circassians in Kosovo and Metohija? They are connected to Kadyrov’s opponents – they have two goals; One is related to Serbs?” (see here)
Serbian newspaper "Informer" on its website yesterday (see here) and on the front page of today's printed edition (here), has published an article on Vučić's claims with a similar title: "THEY BRING IN CHECHEN AND CIRCASSIANS TO KILL SERBS! Vučić published shocking intelligence findings!".
Other Serbian media outlets that have covered this topic in the same way have been "Novosti" (ed. online and i pressing); Newspaper "Hello!" ” (ver online and i pressing); newspaper "Srpski Telegraf" (ver online and i pressing); and "Kurir" (check online and i pressing).
All of these media outlets covered by hibrid.info have been described as close to the government in many credible Western research studies (see the analysis section below).
Moreover, these media have been described as being close to Russian propaganda, initiated by pro-Kremlin media, by NATO (see here).
Analyze:
Serbian media, known for their closeness to the government, prioritized these claims, disregarding the topics of the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue in Brussels and the reciprocity measures.
The prominence given to this claim by Vučić was only given by Serbian media outlets that are known to be close to the government. Their closeness to the government in Serbia is also evidenced by the post of the media outlet “B92” on Twitter. The social media outlet Twitter assessed the post of “B92” as “a medium close to the Serbian government” (see here).
The well-known social network, Twitter, takes care to protect its users from fake news and various propaganda by placing labels (settings) on media outlets that are linked to power or certain groups. “Labels on state-linked accounts provide additional context regarding accounts controlled by certain official representatives of governments, state-linked media entities, and individuals associated with those entities.”
In the Twitter platform's explanation of how state-linked media accounts are defined, it is stated that: “State-linked media are defined as media where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution. Accounts belonging to state-linked media entities, their editors-in-chief, and/or their prominent staff may be labeled.” (see here)
Twitter has labeled a number of well-known newspapers and television stations in Serbia as media outlets where “the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources and direct or indirect political pressure.” Among those it considers linked to the Serbian government are the dailies Srpski Telegraf, Kurir, Informer, Politika, and three broadcast channels – Happy, Prva TV and B92, the online portal of RTV Pink, as well as the news agency Tanjug. (see here)