Wrote: Etrit Rexhepi
An image has been published depicting an article published in a newspaper, authored by the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, and titled "A vote against the project is a protest vote against Sali Berisha.".
This photograph was published on June 11, on journalist Çim Peka's Facebook page, with the caption claiming that Rama, through this text, in 1994, had written that ""Rugova is Sali Berisha's Kosovo President, he is despicable and goes into the sea with a scarf on".
What is the truth?
After verifying this article, it was found that Prime Minister Rama did not provide some of the alleged qualifications for former President Ibrahim Rugova.
Link to the image published by the page named "Cim Peka live" on Facebook:
Referring to journalist Peka's publication, some Albanian-language media outlets have reported on his claim on their portals (see here, here and here).
Hibrid.info has researched and found Rama's full article, on which Peka's claim is based.
This article by Edi Rama from 1994 was published on several Albanian-language portals in 2015 (see here, here and here).
After verifying the content of what Rama wrote at the time, hibrid.info found that in no sentence of the text was there an assessment of President Rugova as "vile" and the article also does not contain Rama's alleged comment about Rugova, that he "goes into the sea with a scarf on".
The only accurate claim from what Peka wrote is the fact that Rama, in his 1994 writing, described Ibrahim Rugova as "Sali Berisha's Kosovar president" (see here).
Likewise, hibrid.info has also come across a video material from an interview with Edi Rama, where the latter explains his opinion about Rugova, in the earlier period (see here).
Analyze:
The claim that Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama described former President Ibrahim Rugova, in 1994, as "vile" and as a person who "goes into the sea with a scarf on" is unfounded.
Hibrid.info has found that the article on which the claim is based does not prove that Rama made the alleged comments about Rugova.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses this content 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.