Wrote: Fatbardh Dema
A video material was published on Facebook by the page "Kosovo Forces”, which shows footage of a person speaking in Serbian, as well as members of the Serbian armed forces conducting training.
Through this video material, the aforementioned website claims that the person speaking in the video has declared that “the soldiers are not exercising in vain, but aim to invade Kosovo.” While the protagonist of this video is referred to as “a 'commander' of the Serbian gendarmerie.”
What's wrong with this claim?
After fact-checking conducted by hibrid.info, it was confirmed that the person speaking in the video is a journalist for the Serbian-language black news outlet "TV Pink", Mladen Mijatovic.
Hibrid.info has translated the statement of journalist Mijatović, which was confirmed that at no time did he mention Kosovo, as falsely claimed by the "Kosovo Forces" page.
Mijatović's statement, translated into Albanian:
"Members of the Gendarmerie Specialist Company are conducting an extremely difficult and dangerous exercise in the trenches. The spaces are narrow, inaccessible and full of mud, and the Gendarmerie members are using live ammunition. This is one of the most challenging and difficult exercises, but all such exercises contribute to safe work and the implementation of all assigned tasks in real conditions."
After searching through the automated program "InVID", the authentic video published by the Serbian journalist himself on his official Instagram account, three days ago (December 6), was also found.
The description of this video says "in the trenches with members of the Gendarmerie Specialist Company using real ammunition during training." (see here)
Hibrid.info covered this content, as it has managed to collect a total of 432 reactions, 280 comments and 45 shares as of the writing of this article. (see photo below)
Analyze:
Through a video published on Facebook, it is alleged that a "Serbian gendarmerie commander" has declared that the Serbian army's exercises are aimed at "invading Kosovo."
Hibrid.info verified the facts and confirmed that this claim is false.
The person in the video is Serbian crime journalist on "TV Pink", Mladen Mijatović, not a gendarmerie commander, as claimed.
In this video, he only talks about a difficult training exercise with real ammunition that members of the Serbian Gendarmerie are conducting, without mentioning Kosovo at all.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses this claim as "Disinformation".
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.