Wrote: Endrit Berisha
Through a photo published on the social network TikTok, it has been claimed that the US ambassador to Kosovo, Jeffrey Hovenier, supports Bedri Hamza of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) for prime minister of the country.
The claim was published by the account "tavnikcitypdk" on Wednesday (June 26).
What's wrong with this post?
After verification by hibrid.info, it turns out that the claim made by this account is false.
"US Ambassador Jeffrey Hovenier supports Bedri Hamza for Prime Minister!" is the caption that the account in question placed above a photo of Hovenier and Hamza.
Link to the post of the "tavnikcitypdk" account on TikTok:
The photo is from Bedri Hamza's Facebook account. He and the US ambassador are seen chatting during an event marking the 25th anniversary of the OSCE mission in Kosovo on June 25. (see here)
"In June 1999, after liberation, work immediately began to rebuild life on the ruins of war and to establish Kosovo's institutions. Today, the OSCE mission in Kosovo also celebrated its 25th anniversary. And, we can rightly conclude that these 25 years were full of successes. They were 25 years of unstoppable work to build democracy, strengthen media freedom, promote human rights, the rule of law and develop independent institutions. With the OSCE, we have laid the foundations of democracy and Kosovo is eternally grateful!" Hamza wrote on Facebook, in a series of published photos, including the one with Hovenier.
The American ambassador has not given any preference to politicians in Kosovo. Hibrid.info, through online search engines, has not been able to find any article in which Hovenier has offered support for Hamza (see here). There is also no credible article reporting that Hovenier supports any candidate in the upcoming general elections in Kosovo (see here).
As of the publication of this article, the TikTok post has received over 250 likes and nearly 100 comments. Some commenters have taken the post for granted, criticizing Ambassador Hovenier. (see photo below)
In late March, the Democratic Party of Kosovo presented Bedri Hamza as its candidate for prime minister. Hamza is currently the mayor of South Mitrovica. The PDK has called for elections to be held as soon as possible. The four-year mandate of the current government of Prime Minister Albin Kurti ends in early 2025. There is currently no date for the next elections.
Analyze:
The TikTok account "tavnikcitypdk" has published a photo of PDK's candidate for prime minister, Bedri Hamza, and US ambassador, Jeffrey Hovennier, from an OSCE ceremony and, without any facts, has captioned it that Hovennier supports the PDK candidate for the elections.
But hibrid.info has not found any article about Hovenier's alleged support for Hamza or any other candidate.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses this content as "Fake News".
Reasoning:
The “Fake News” rating is given to informational content that is entirely fabricated or that contains factually incorrect claims or information. Content that is rated as fake news can be defined as having been created and distributed with the intent to misinform the public, i.e., to present a claim that is completely false as fact.