Several Serbian media outlets, including "Alo.rs" and "Pravda.rs", have published an article with a fabricated title, stating that "Albanians are in a panic, fearing that Serbia will swallow them up."
As a pretext for writing this article, these Serbian media outlets took the statement of the leader of the Vetevendosje Movement, Albin Kurti, who criticized the Kosovo Prime Minister, Avdulla Hoti, for signing the agreement in Washington, allowing the "creation of a fourth Yugoslavia", led by Serbs.
However, within the content, Kurti is never paraphrased or quoted as having used the phrase "swallowed by Serbs".
Quotes from Kurti reported in the Alo.rs and Pravda.rs article:
Albin Kurti, former prime minister of the provisional institutions of Pristina and leader of the Vetëvendosje movement, called the agreement between Belgrade and Pristina reached at the White House “an agreement that creates a ‘fourth Yugoslavia,’” Gazeta Express reports.
Kurti believes that this new Yugoslavia is being created through the "mini-Schengen" zone, which will enable Belgrade's economic hegemony over Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija and Albania, says "Kosova Online".
– The Albanians of Kosovo and the Albanians in that “fourth Yugoslavia” will only be consumers of Serbian goods and hope to receive payments from Serbian trucks. Because our producers will remain unprotected – he said in his speech to the members of the General Council of Vetëvendosje.
According to him, the Prime Minister of the Provisional Institutions of Pristina, Avdulah Hoti, signed the biggest concessions that Pristina made to Belgrade in the post-conflict period.
– Serbia has won full rehabilitation before the world – said Kurti and added that “for decades, the Serbian president did not go to the White House.” He added that Hoti was doing a bad job and was humiliating Pristina's international position.
Link to the full article in Serbian on alo.rs and pravda.rs:
https://pravda.rs/lat/2020/9/28/siptari-u-panici-srbija-ce-nas-progutati/
https://www.alo.rs/kosovsko-pitanje/albanci-srbi-mini-sengen/344203/vest
As can be seen from this text, no Albanian representative from either Kosovo or Albania is quoted or paraphrased as having expressed fear of being “swallowed by Serbia.” Consequently, even in the parts where the leader of Vetëvendosje is quoted, there is no mention of the narrative purportedly presented by these Serbian media.
Apparently, the article about the alleged concern of Albanians was written in the spirit of the context used in the reports the day before (September 27) in several other Serbian media outlets, which dealt with another claim – the concern of, as it is said, “Bosnians and Croats” about the creation of a new Serbian empire like that of “Tsar Dushan” led by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić. However, this news also seems to be inflated by the Serbian media, since it is not about any general fear, but only about an analysis of a Bosnian professor named Enver Halilović and the content of an article published in the Croatian newspaper “Jutarnji List”, which raises concerns about the dangerous Serbian projects that lie behind regional initiatives, such as the “mini-Schengen”.
"The idea of a mini-Schengen, Halilović says, is in the service of Greater Serbia politics. A text published in the Croatian newspaper 'Jutrarnji List' also takes the same position."
Link to the original article published by the Serbian newspaper republika.rs:
According to research conducted by the Sarajevo-based fact-checking platform, “Raskrinkavanke.ba", such propaganda articles are distributed by media outlets close to the Russian state media "Sputnik" and the Serbian public media outlet "RTS". Such media outlets, according to this study, also appear to be those highlighted in this analysis by hibrid.info.
Bosnian experts' report in English:
https://zastone.ba/app/uploads/2019/05/Disinformation_in_the_online_sphere_The_case_of_BiH_ENG.pdf
Analyze:
After checking the facts and analyzing them in context by hibrid.info, it is clear that these Serbian media outlets have distributed in a coordinated manner a propaganda that claims to present the fear of the Serbs' neighbors (Albanians, Croats and Bosniaks) for the creation of a "Greater Serbia". While in the analysis made specifically of the facts of the article published by alo.rs and pravda.rs, it is seen that the title does not correspond at all to the content and is intended to spread disinformation. For this reason, hibrid.info categorizes this article as "Disinformation", "Fake News" and "Clickbait".
Reasoning:
Disinformation
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.
Manipulation of facts
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.
Fake news
The "Fake News" rating is given to media reports that are entirely the product of a medium that itself contains factually incorrect claims or information.
Content that is considered fake news can be reliably determined to have been created and distributed with the intent to misinform the public, i.e., to present a claim that is completely false as fact.
Clickbait
“Clickbait” are those texts whose title has no basis in the content of the following text. Such texts and articles aim to attract the attention of the reader or even the consumer with a sensational title by promising content that does not actually exist and are created mainly out of financial interest, that is, due to increased readability. So, this type of text is only intended to click, which can be converted into a profit for the content producer.