The Serbian state news agency, "Tanjug", published an article today (January 15) regarding the Recak massacre.
In this article, this media outlet claims that "this event served as a cause for accusations against Serbia and as a justification, a reason for NATO's aggression against Serbia, namely the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia", even though according to them "it was never actually proven that the police were responsible for the deaths of civilians".
Link to the article published in the Serbian language media outlet "Tanjug.rs":
In addition to "Tanjug.rs", the same article was also published in several other Serbian-language media outlets such as "Insider.net","B92.net"and "Politika.rs".
So, for this claim, the medium "Tanjug.rs" does not provide any facts that argue that the Serbian police were not responsible for the deaths of civilians in the 1999 massacre in Recak.
After research conducted by hibrid.info, it was found that these claims made by Serbia have been denied by international factors, who were participants in missions during the war in Kosovo. (see here)
The argument that the Recak massacre was carried out by Serbian forces has been made by many international human rights organizations, among them the most credible, Human Rights Watch. (see here)
Hibrid.info had previously addressed a similar claim made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who had stated that the massacres in Ukraine, with particular emphasis on the Bucha massacre, were staged, just like the one in Recak in Kosovo. (see here)
Analyze:
The Serbian-language media outlet "Tanjug.rs" has claimed without evidence that the 1999 massacre in Recak was not carried out by the Serbian police, who were responsible for the deaths of civilians.
But, based on data published by the global human rights organization "Human Rights Watch", it is argued that Serbian forces committed the Recak massacre.
The claims of the Serbian media outlet "Tanjug.rs", based on fact checking and analysis, are assessed as "Manipulation of Facts" and "Disinformation".
Reasoning:
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.
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.