An image is published with the caption "Kurti asks Bondsteel to pay rent."
image with this caption it was published on Monday (May 11) on Facebook by the page named "Mërgata me LDK-në".
The post also has a description, which interprets the claim of the image caption.
What's wrong with this content?
In this content, the interpretation of a statement by Vjosa Osmani is presented as a fait accompli.
Hibrid.info checked using the search engine "Google" with the words "Kurti asks Bondsteel to pay rent" (see here).
The results after this search did not show any sources of information confirming the claim.
The article that came closest to the claim was the one reporting that the presidential candidate from the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), Vjosa Osmani, had, through a statement, implied that Albin Kurti, the acting Prime Minister of Kosovo, had requested a lease for Bondsteel (see here).
This content explains that this statement by Osmani was made at the LDK rally (May 10), where Osmani's return to this political entity was made official. The text also contains Osmani's directly quoted statement.
Osman's statement:
"Who would have imagined that all of this would become an obstacle and fear and a reason for the blockade of our state and unnecessary elections. Who would have imagined that you are considered an obstacle because you love Kosovo as a state where the Kosovo soldier defends peace side by side with the American soldier, and not as a state where certain politicians say that we should laugh at Bondsteel and ask for rent"
To verify the accuracy of the statement presented in this text, hibrid.info checked Osman's speech using a video of the rally, published on the YouTube channel of the news agency "KosovaPress" (see here).
This video material confirms the truthfulness of the statement quoted above (see here).
However, according to the confirmed statement, it is also confirmed that President Osmani did not expressly refer to Prime Minister Kurti in her statement.
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Other results have shown content from the past where a statement by Kurti was reported in 2022, in which he expressed that he wanted Bondsteel to become a permanent base in Kosovo (see here and here).
Camp Bondsteel, located near Ferizaj in Kosovo, is the largest US military base in the Balkans (see here).
Analyze:
An image published on Facebook claims that Kosovo's acting Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, has demanded that the American military camp Bondsteel pay rent.
After verification conducted by hibrid.info, it turned out that the claim presented in the image caption is not confirmed.
The investigation found no public statements or credible sources proving that Kurti has asked Bondsteel to pay rent.
Through verification, it was confirmed that the claim is based on a statement made by Vjosa Osmani during an LDK rally, where she said that “certain politicians” have said that Bondsteel should be asked to pay rent. However, she does not directly mention Kurti in her statement.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses this content as "Manipulation of facts".
Reasoning:
“Factual manipulation” is a rating given to informational content that uses facts known to be accurate but interprets them in a distorted manner. These reports typically use accurate information to draw incorrect conclusions or claims, thereby misleading consumers of media content about the actual meaning of the facts presented.