Serbian media outlet "Blic.rs" today (August 11) published an article titled "Kurti waves his arms and calls for war": Petkovic: Synchronized campaign against Serbs at work". The article is based on a post by the director of the office for Kosovo in the Serbian government, Petar Petkovic, who interprets the statements of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti as preparations and calls for war.
Petkovic's reaction came in a statement published today (August 11) on his Twitter account. (see here)
Hibrid.info, after verifying the facts, has found that the statement of this senior Serbian official, made through his Twitter account, is unfounded. In fact, what can be observed from the content of this post is an interpretation with the aim of diverting the statements of political and institutional representatives of Kosovo.
Link to the article published on "Blic.rs":
Excerpt from the article published in "Blic.rs":
The Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, assessed that Pristina's synchronized campaign against Serbs is underway today.
The Prime Minister of the Provisional Institutions of Pristina last night repeated the accusations against Serbia for alleged possible attacks on Kosovo and Metohija, while asserting that Pristina is ready to defend itself.
Those who are hotbeds of crime want to criminalize Serbs in the north - Petkovic added in a Twitter post.
The article published on "blic.rs" presents the statement of the head of the office for Kosovo in the Serbian government, Petar Petkovic, who falsely claims that "Albin Kurti is waving weapons and calling for war."
Petkovic likely built this claim by linking it to statements by senior political and institutional representatives of Kosovo, led by Prime Minister Albin Kurti, about the risk of a possible conflict in the region, as well as the level of readiness of Kosovo's security institutions to protect the country.
In several interviews given to foreign media (Italian journalist "The Republic","Radio Free Europe") and recently yesterday (August 10) in the interview for the news agency "Reuters"Kurti had warned of the risk of conflict, but not threatened war, as Petkovic claims.
Excerpt from Albin Kurti's interview with Reuters:
"We should not rule out the possibility that these aggressive policies of Belgrade could turn into an attack against Kosovo, in one way or another. We are vigilant, but not afraid." (see here)
This claim by Petkovic has been published in articles by several Serbian-language media outlets, quoting him in a biased manner, without even confronting him with official Pristina statements. (see examples) here, here and here)
Analyze:
Prime Minister Albin Kurti's recent statements to international media appear to have been misinterpreted by Petar Petkovic, describing them as "waving weapons and a call to war."
Albin Kurti, in an interview given to the international news agency Reuters, states that: "the possibility of new tensions and conflicts rising cannot be ruled out", a statement that leaves no room for interpretations made by Petar Petkovic.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses Petar Petkovic's statement as "Manipulation of facts" and the Serbian media outlet's reporting as "Biased".
Reasoning:
The evaluation as "Manipulation of facts" is given to those media reports that use facts known to be correct, but interpret them in a distorted way. These reports typically use inaccurate information to draw inaccurate conclusions or claims, thereby misdirecting consumers' conclusions of media content in relation to the actual meaning of the facts presented.