A study conducted by the EU Policy Department for External Relations on fake news and disinformation in the Western Balkans is in the headlines of the Kosovo media. Among other findings it alleges that the US Special Envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina talks, Richard Grenell’s campaign to spread disinformation had contributed to the overthrowing of an Albin Kurti-led government. While some media outlets linked one of the authors of the study to Self-Determination, the LDK party says that it is just a manipulation, and the PDK states that they would sooner trust Americans than „some idiots“ who write contradictory reports.
The study conducted by the EU Policy Department for External Relations singles out the tweets of the US Special Envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina talks, Richard Grenell as the most notable case of disinformation in Kosovo.
“Frustrated at what he saw as obstruction from Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, Ambassador Grenell apparently arranged for Senator David Perdue and the US President’s son, Donald Trump Jr., to make a statement on Twitter suggesting that the US withdraw its troops from Kosovo. Ambassador Grenell then carried that threat – which was not made by a US official – into negotiations with Kurti’s coalition partners, engineering a vote of no confidence that brought down Kurti’s Government,” the report cited as an example of how “a foreign actor was able to manufacture an entirely fictional threat and thereby engineer a change of government.”
In addition to Klan Kosova, Gazeta Express, Zeri and RTV Besa, the study listed Kadri Veseli and Isa Mustafa as the main disinformation channels in Kosovo.
This discovery, published in the report which covers a period of two years (2018-2020), caught the attention of the media, as well as the Self-Determination movement (LVV). One of the first reactions arrived from LVV MP Dimal Basha, who referred to Grenell as “a bully.”
„When you make an alliance with foreigners to overthrow the government – it is national betrayal, and that includes cooperation with a bully like Grenell. The EU report has proved what I have been saying from the start. You are scumbags, you are revolting,“ reads Basha’s reaction to the study, Insajderi reports. The EU Policy Department for External Relations study, also criticizes political stakeholders who have accused their political opponents of being traitors.
Insajderi also wrote about the alleged connection between one of the four authors of the study and the LVV and Albin Kurti.
According to this portal, Adam Fagan, one of the authors of the study, is a professor linked to the Self-Determination movement.
Insajderi further alleged that Fagan was one of the panelists of the LVV’s October online debate discussing Washington agreement on economic normalization between Kosovo and Serbia.
Albin Kurti revealed the name of the participants in addition to himself: university professors Florian Bieber, James Ker-Lindsay, Aidan Hehir, the author of this study, Adam Fagan, journalist Tim Judah, analyst Bodo Weber and journalist Dana Landau, spoke on the panels headed by LVV MP Fitore Pacolli and a member of the party’s presidency, Albulena Haxhiu.
Kurti then presented what he interpreted as different conclusions „about the deficient, harmful consequences of the unilateral obligations undertaken by Kosovo’s illegal prime minister and authoritarian Serbian president in the White House.“
Fagan is the Vice-Dean and Professor of European Politics at King’s College London.
Both the ruling party and Kurti’s former coalition partner – LDK and the opposition PDK criticized the EU study – particularly the claim that the disinformation campaign led by the US Envoy, Richard Grenell contributed to the overthrow of the government of Albin Kurti.
Mustafa: A desperate act of manipulating the truth
According to the president of the LDK, Isa Mustafa, the claim that the disinformation campaign led by the US Special Envoy, Richard Grenell contributed to the overthrow of the government of Albin Kurti is „a desperate attempt to manipulate the truth.“
Mustafa revealed that he would request the necessary clarifications from the European people’s parties so that „this tendentious and ideologically motivated study against the LDK is banned.“
„Some European leftists, sympathizers of Kosovo’s main left-wing political force (Albin Kurti’s Self-Determination Movement) in a ‘study’ on the impact of fake news on policy-making, including Kosovo, have accused me of producing fake news to overthrow the ruling coalition between Self-Determination and LDK,“ Mustafa wrote on Facebook.
Speaking about the period before the overthrow of Kurti’s government, the former coalition partner of Albin Kurti stated that the LDK movement gave the Self-Determination a chance to work together for Kosovo’s benefit. He added that the LDK could not stand by as it was „being trampled and watch Self-Determination dismiss LDK ministers – thus violating the agreement and jeopardizing Kosovo’s partnership with the United States.“
He noted that this was the reason why LDK reacted and initiated the procedure to overthrow the government.
Mustafa concluded that this was his answer to everyone in Kosovo „who believe themselves to be so important and powerful that they can ignore the phone calls of the White House and the State Department.“
PDK spokesman – False information in the study on the overthrow of Kurti’s government
The PDK spokesman, Avni Bytyci, also reacted, bringing the sources used for this report into question. He emphasized that the part of the report concerning the overthrow of Kurti’s government is based on Sputnik’s news and that it was written in close cooperation with the Kallxo portal, which, according to Bytyci, has close ties with Haki Abazi from the Self-Determination party.
„Not everything the EU writes is true, I’m talking about the same EU that has kept us isolated for years without liberalization and any rational argument,“ the PDK spokesman said.
He added that he would sooner believe the Americans and the things he heard during the meetings, and not „some idiots who wrote a report using the above-mentioned references which contain plenty of contradictions.“
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
