Prepared by: Festim Rizanaj
In the last week, the information disorder in real and social media has been dominated by unverified content, as monitoring shows.
During the week, several unverified contents were published in the media and social networks. On August 16 and 17, several Facebook pages such as “Korrekt Press”, “Realiteti”, “Kosova Channel”, “Gazeta Plisi” and “Diaspora me Albinin” spread claims that “Korkut 8×8” anti-aircraft guns purchased from Turkey will soon arrive in Kosovo, but Hibrid.info did not find any official source or fact confirming this information. Also, on August 19, the online media “rtv21.tv” and “demokracia.com” published an article with the title “Businesses start the week without electricity, confirm that they have started the procedures to leave Kosovo”. Verification showed that the claim was general, as it was based only on the statement of a single source. Meanwhile, on August 22, the portals “Indeksonline.net” and “Demokracia.com” reported that the car of the candidate for mayor of Zveçan had been burned. After verification, it turned out that this was not correct, as the car belonged to Časlav Sofronijević, advisor to the former Mayor of Zvečan from the Serbian List, Dragiša Milović.
In the last week, several false content has been shared on social media. On August 18, a TikTok account named “ffrmir” published an image of Rifat Jashari, brother of the commander and founder of the KLA, Adem Jashari, accompanied by the caption that he stated that “the PDK did not give a single cent for Drenica, the square was built by KFOR, Prekaz was built by Turkey, and Kosovo by Ibrahim Rugova”. Fact-checking showed that there is no source to support this claim. A photo of Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez was also shared, with the caption that claims that the club will not sell tickets to members of the LGBTQI+ community. This image was published on the Facebook account of Albanian imam Ahmed Kalaja. Hibrid.info found that there is no official decision by Real Madrid that would confirm this claim.
The publication of a video on August 20 by "Klan Kosova" with the title "Accident in Germany - Three injured on Kosovo bus" was assessed as biased reporting. Hibrid.info found that the title only reflects the company's version, while other reports speak of more injuries.
The article titled "Senior US official 'orders' Kurti: Don't make the mistake of excluding Serbian List from the elections" was assessed as clickbait/disinformation. Verification by Hibrid.info showed that the title is disinformation and does not match the statement of Anu Prattipati, the charge d'affaires at the US Embassy.
Unverified content
Content is being published claiming that “Korkut 8×8” anti-aircraft missiles purchased from Turkey will soon arrive in Kosovo. This content was published on Saturday and Sunday (August 16 and 17) by several Facebook pages such as: “Korrekt Press”, “Realiteti”, “Kosova Channel”, “Gazeta Plisi” and “Diaspora me Albinin”. Hibrid.info has not found any official source or fact that confirms the claim. (here)
An article titled “Businesses start the week without electricity, confirm that they have started the procedures to leave Kosovo” has been published. The article was published on Monday (August 19) by the online media “rtv21.tv” and “demokracia.com”. Hibrid.info has found that the claim presented in the title and in the article that “businesses confirm that they have started the procedures to leave Kosovo” is general, as this claim is based only on the statement of one source. (here)
A case of burning the car of a candidate for mayor of Zvečan was reported. The article with this claim was published on Friday (August 22) by the information portals “Indeksonline.net” and “Demokracia.com”. After verifying the facts, it was determined that the claim is incorrect. The burned car belongs to Časlav Sofronijević, advisor to the former Mayor of Zvečan from the Serbian List, Dragiša Milović. (here)
Fake news
An image has been published showing Rifat Jashari, the brother of Adem Jashari, the commander and founder of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), with a caption claiming that he stated that “the PDK (Democratic Party of Kosovo) did not give a single cent for Drenica, the square was built by KFOR, Prekaz was built by Turkey, while Kosovo was built by Ibrahim Rugova”. This content with this claim was published on Monday (August 18) by a TikTok account, under the name “ffrmir”. Hibrid.info has not found any source that would confirm the claim in question. (here)
A photo has been published, showing the president of the Real Madrid football club, Florentino Pérez, accompanied by an inscription claiming that this club will not sell tickets to members of the LGBTQI+ community. The image with this claim was published on the Facebook account of the Albanian imam, Ahmed Kalaja. Hibrid.info has found that there is no official decision published by Real Madrid, which would confirm the claim. (here)
Biased reporting
A video titled “Accident in Germany – Three injured in Kosovo bus” has been published. The video with this title was published on Wednesday (August 20) on the official YouTube channel of “Klan Kosova” television. Hibrid.info found that the claim presented in the title reflects only the version of the company whose bus was involved in the accident, while other reports speak of a higher number of injuries. (here)
Clickbait/Disinformation
Several Albanian-language news portals, on Thursday (August 21), shared the article titled “Senior American official 'orders' Kurti: Don't make the mistake of excluding the Serbian List from the elections”. The article was published by online media outlets such as “Periskopi.com”, “Jepize.com”, “Lajmi.net” and “Kfvagency.com”. After fact-checking by hibrid.info, it was confirmed that the title does not correspond to the statement of Anu Prattipati, the charge d'affaires at the American Embassy. (here)
Unfounded narratives in Serbian media
The delivery of 50 armored vehicles by the US to the Kosovo Government on August 15 was presented by some Serbian media as “armament against Serbs”, linking it to their intimidation and displacement from Kosovo. (here)
The nomination of protesting students from Serbia for the Sakharov Prize by MEPs Irena Joveva and Helmut Brandšteter on 18 August was reported with a delegitimizing narrative. These reports used the strategy of “guilt by association”, going back to 1991 when the Sakharov Prize was won by Adem Demaçi, to present the prize as compromised and linked to “terrorist figures”. (here)