A fake news story published on February 23 by the dubious portal with content in Albanian "gazetaz.com", is continuing to be shared on the social network Facebook.
This article falsely claims that “Albin Kurti fires Goran Rakiqi from office and closes the door in his face for an unusual reason.” However, after fact-checking by hibrid.info, it has been confirmed that both the title of this article and parts of its content are false.
After researching through online search engines, hibrid.info has managed to find the authentic article published on the portal "buletiniekonomik.com", which was published on February 2, 2022.
The content of the article includes the statement of the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Education, Dukagjin Pupovci, who at that time, at the meeting of the Committee for the Supervision of Public Finances, had emphasized that from February, "MEST will reduce the salaries of 32 officials from the Serbian community to zero, who have not gone to work a single day and this ministry has spent over 135 thousand euros from its budget on their payments."
The article with false content and title was shared today (July 22) on Facebook by the page "Specialja", which in this post made at 13:00 PM has managed to collect a large number of reactions and comments. (see here)
In the content of the article published by the dubious portal "gazetaz.com" in the first paragraph, there is the false claim "According to unofficial information, government officials have seen how Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has not accepted a meeting with Goran Rakić, who is said to have wanted to complain to the Prime Minister about the case of 32 Serbs in MEST".
That this claim is false has been proven by research conducted by hibrid.info, as it has been seen that in the authentic article published in "buletiniekonomik", the part through which this false claim is made by these dubious portals is not found at all. (see here)
During research through social networks, hibrid.info cites an example of how in one case a reader fell prey to this fake news, taking it for granted and sharing it on his personal Facebook account. (see photo below)
This is not the first time that this article has been distributed by dubious portals and Facebook pages. The same thing happened in June of this year, which was also covered by hibrid.info. (see here)
Analyze:
The Facebook page called "Specialja" published the article claiming that "Kurti has kicked Rakiq out of office."
Based on the facts reviewed by hibrid.info, it turns out that this article is false.
Referring to the methodology of hibrid.info, this claim is considered "fake news", since the entire claim is fabricated and has no basis.
Reasoning:
The "Fake News" rating is given to media reports that are entirely the product of a medium that itself contains factually incorrect claims or information.
Content that is considered fake news can be reliably determined to have been created and distributed with the intent to misinform the public, i.e., to present a claim that is completely false as fact.