*The article from the Serbian language media outlet "Kurir.rs" was corrected after being treated by hibrid.info (see here corrected article)
Wrote: Etrit Rexhepi
On Sunday (November 16th), several Serbian-language media outlets reported on an incident that allegedly occurred on the border between Kosovo and Serbia.
According to what reported Serbian public broadcaster, RTS, was told that “Around 15:00, in the area of the 'Debela Glava' base, a group of masked Albanians attacked members of the Serbian Army, RTS learned unofficially”.
"The armed group of Albanians at the foot of the Shopi hill fired 15 times at members of the Serbian Army, hitting a dog that was near the patrol."
"The armed group fled in six jeeps towards Kosovo and Metohija", claimed RTS in the article titled "A group of Albanians fired on members of the Serbian Army near the 'Debela Glava' base."
What's wrong with this reporting?
The RTS article does not base the claim made as a statement in the title of the article on any official source.
Within the article, RTS says that "learned unofficially", which contradicts the title of the article, as it states that shootings occurred, which is not confirmed in any case.
Besides RTS, other Serbian-language media outlets have also written about this claim, such as "Kurir.rs","Hello.rs","Telegraf.rs" and others, which have either quoted RTS, or referred to their own sources, but whose claims are the same.
"Euronews.rs" reported on Monday (November 17) saying that "there is no official information" on what was claimed the day before to have happened on the border between Kosovo and Serbia by Serbian-language media.
"There is still no official information regarding the incident reported by the media yesterday afternoon, according to which a group of Albanians attacked members of the Serbian Army in the area of the Debela Glava base, after which they are suspected of fleeing towards Kosovo and Metohija."
"On this occasion, the Euronews Serbia team was in Gracanica and from the scene we learned that no institution has confirmed so far that the incident occurred," was said in the report of "Euronews Serbia".
Meanwhile, the Kosovo Police has issued a statement on this claim, denying the reports of the Serbian media.
Through a press release issued on Monday (November 17, at 09:51), the Police said that "The claims published in some Serbian media, according to which an 'armed group of Albanians has shot (opened fire) at members of the Serbian army near the so-called 'Debela Glava' base, are disinformation, unfounded and do not correspond to any official information or events verified by the authorities in the territory of the Republic of Kosovo".
"Based on all operational data, reports from police units in the field and coordination with other competent institutions, no incident of the alleged nature has been recorded.", it was said in the Kosovo Police announcement published on its official website on Facebook.
While denying that there were any shots fired in the border area, the Police said in the same statement that "During the performance of regular operational duties yesterday, it is worth noting that police units arrested four suspects (hunters) citizens of Serbia for illegal border crossing and illegal possession of weapons, who entered the Republic of Kosovo from the territory of Serbia."
"The weapons and ammunition found have been confiscated, while the suspects, by decision of the competent justice bodies, have been taken into custody in accordance with legal procedures."
So far, there has been no statement from KFOR regarding this claim.
Analyze
The Serbian public broadcaster, RTS, as well as other Serbian-language media outlets, as mentioned above, claimed on Sunday (November 16) that there had been gunfire from Kosovo territory towards members of the Serbian Army in the Serbian part of the country.
According to these claims, “a group of masked Albanians” They fired a gun and shot a dog.
However, although the headlines of these articles stated that there had been shooting, in the content none of the articles substantiated this, but all of them referred to the sentence "learned unofficially".
Kosovo Police, meanwhile, on Monday denied that there had been any shooting on the border line on Sunday, November 16, considering the claims of the Serbian media as ""disinformation, unfounded and do not correspond to any official information or events verified by the authorities in the territory of the Republic of Kosovo".
Therefore, based on the working methodology, hibrid.info assesses these claims as “Unverified Content” and “Disinformation.
rationale
The "Unverified" rating is given to those informative contents that do not provide sufficient information to confirm the claims made in the report, and which could not be verified due to certain circumstances (speed, lack of sources) during the publication of the content.
"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.