Disinformation campaign of Russian and Serbian media against Kosovo:
What lessons can be learned from media monitoring in 2020? Over the past year, the Kosovo Institute for Policy Research and Development (KIPRED), supported by the Open Information Partnership (OIP) from London, has monitored the published news related to Kosovo from a number of Serbian and Russian media, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Kremlin. The selected Serbian media that were monitored during the past year were Tanjugu, Informeri, Novosti, Kuriri, B92-shi, Politika and Naša Borba, while the corresponding selected media of Russian origin were Russia Today, Sputnik International, Sputnik Serbia, Meduza, Russia Insider, TASS, The Moscow Times, Newsfront, Unz, The Duran, and Pravda Report, as well as the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Kremlin.
Data monitoring has shown that from January 1 to December 31, 2020, selected Serbian media have published 4,800 news items that were directly or indirectly related to Kosovo, where Tanjug had published 701 of them. Informer 720, Novosti 783, B92-shi 1,642, Kuriri 183, Politika 569 and Naša Borba 69 news. The largest percentage of news published in these media about Kosovo that contained misinformation were published before the creation of the coalition government led by Albin Kurti and immediately after that, that is, in January, which reached the value of 12.40%, and in February, 7.80%, followed by the period that preceded the Washington Agreement, in August, with 6.70%, and that after the fall of the Kurti Government, in April, which reached the percentage of 5.47%.
Disinformation trends for the other months were slightly lower, in March 5.21%, May 4.35%, December 4.10%, June 3.32%, October 3.00%, July 2.30%, November 1.70% and in September 1.50%. Due to the large number of news that contained disinformation during 2020, KIPRED has deconstructed 68 of them, and that of news cases with the most flagrant misinformation. The deconstruction of these news shows that the misinformation of the selected Serbian media was aimed at creating and strengthening narratives for shaking the foundations of the legality of Kosovo’s citizenship and denying its right to exercise sovereignty as an independent state, accusing it of non-respect of the agreements reached during the dialogue assisted by the European Union, discrediting its institutions and leadership, especially the leaders who came from the ranks of the Kosovo Liberation Army and former Prime Minister Albin Kurti, presenting it as a failed and problematic state which has turned into “a mafia state” and a hotbed of organized crime, trafficking and radicalism, which also oppresses the local Serbian community, plans its expulsion through covert military operations, and threatens the legacy of the Orthodox Church in place. Moreover, they also intend to discredit the international presence in Kosovo, accusing it of “failure” in the state building of Kosovo, especially in the treatment of justice related to war crimes.
An interesting dimension of these news stories that contain misinformation are the attempts to change the narratives about the Kosovo War, through the denial of the war crimes committed by Belgrade in Kosovo, presenting the Serbs as the only victims and NATO as an aggressor who has committed war crimes, increasing the number of Serb victims, and presenting the Kosovo Albanians’ struggle for independence as a religious war, and the KLA as an Islamist military formation.
On the other hand, data monitoring shows that from January 1 to December 31, 2020, media of Russian origin published 1,878 news stories that were directly or indirectly related to Kosovo. Sputnik Serbia has published 1,592, Sputnik International 41, Russia Today 59, Russia Insider 13, Meduza 1, TASS 40, The Moscow Times 8, Pravda Report none, Newsfront 55, UNZ-i 15, The Duran 15, Kremlin 4 and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation 35 news that were directly or indirectly related to Kosovo.
The highest percentage of news published by these media during this period about Kosovo that contained misinformation was during three important moments of political developments in the country. The first moment was related to the creation of the VV-LDK government. During the second month of Kurti’s prime ministership, in March, the percentage of news that had misinformation was 12.4%, followed by the period immediately after the fall of his government, in April, with 12.16%, and a month before creation of the VV-LDK coalition government, in January, with 11.76%. The second moment was related to the creation of the Hoti government, at the beginning of June, and the continuation of the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia in Washington, which was originally scheduled for June 27, 2020, but was postponed due to the publication of the indictment by the Prosecution of the Specialized Chambers against the President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi, on June 24, and in the following period, that is, the percentage of news with misinformation from these media publications was 12.2% in June, and 11.2% in July. The third moment coincided with the fall of the Hoti government in December, which reached the value of 11.4% of the disinformation news about Kosovo published by these media.
Interestingly, the lowest percentage of disinformation news was published in February (3.47%), which coincided with the establishment of the Kurti government, followed by October (5.0%), September (7.4%), August (7 .6%) and November (8.7%). Due to the large number of news stories that contained misinformation, published by the media in Russia during 2020, KIPRED has deconstructed 57 of them that contained the most flagrant misinformation. The deconstruction of disinformation published by these media shows that their main aim has been to shake the foundations of Kosovo’s citizenship by questioning its right to exercise its sovereignty and presenting its citizenship as illegal and a violation of its international law, comparing it to the cases of Crimea and Nagorno-Karabakh, presenting it as a threat to international security and a den of extremism, presenting it as a quasi-state that oppresses the Serbian community and other non-majority communities, presenting it as an evil and criminal state, undermining international and local efforts for transitional justice, accusing it of not respecting the agreements reached in Brussels and Washington, as well as discrediting its institutions and leadership. An interesting dimension of this misinformation, similar to those published by selected Serbian media, is their attempt to change the narratives of the Kosovo War. In this regard, they claim that Kosovo is a state creature that was created through a “genocide” supported by Western countries against the Serbian population, accusing Kosovo and NATO of war crimes against the Serbian population, increasing the number of Serbian victims during the Kosovo War, and denying the war crimes committed by Serbia against the Kosovo Albanians. The discourse and disinformation narratives about Kosovo and about the West, of the Serbian media and those of Russian origin, are the same, with the only small difference that the Serbian media does not compare Kosovo with the case of Crimea.
Moreover, evidence shows that after B92, Sputnik Serbia publishes more news than any other media outlet in Serbia, and that the percentage of news containing misinformation about Kosovo and the role of the West in its freedom and state-building is much higher, higher than those published by media of Russian origin, than Serbian ones.
Lulzim Peci, Executive Director