Kosovo online and the Serbian government: unity through disinformation

Kosovo fact-checkers and the Police in the country constantly denied such announcements. These disinformation channels were analyzed many times by both Kosovar and regional journalists and fact-checkers. However, another source of disinformation hasn’t received the same coverage even though it is a “public secret” among journalists and public figures in Kosovo. “Kosovo Online” is an online media covering Kosovo affairs, Serbia, and especially the municipalities with a Serb majority in Kosovo. The content of “Kosovo Online” is published in nearly three languages, mainly in Serbian, but some articles are translated into Albanian and some into English. 

Although aspiring to professional journalism, this media – starting from its ownership, and editorial staff, all the way to the contents of the articles, interviews, and caricatures – spreads disinformation about Kosovo, supports the disinformation narratives of the Serbian government, and openly reveals its close ties it.

 

Kosovo Online ownership 

According to the Media Ownership Monitor (MOM) of Kosovo 2023, “Kosovo Online” is one of the five media appearing on the market in the last five years. Within the Kosovo Business Registration Agency, the company registered under the name “Kosovo Online”, and “VIM INFO” D.O.O., registered in Zvecan on the 26th of July 2019. 

The owner of the business is Dusan Milanovic, its founder and director. According to MOM, a company under the same name is registered in Serbia. In the business registry in Serbia, this business is owned by “AVALA MEDIA GRUP DOO BEOGRAD”, whose owner is Ivan Jaksic who is also the director and Chief Editor of the portal Kosovo-Online. 

In the period between 2014 and 2022, Jaksic worked as a public communications advisor (PR) to the director of the Kosovo and Metohija offices within the Government of Serbia. From 2020 to 2022, Jaksic was special adviser to the Serbian Foreign Affairs Minister, Nikola Selakovic. 

In the meantime, the coordinator of “Kosovo Online” for the four Serbian municipalities in Kosovo is Ivica Simic, brother of Igor Simic, former Deputy President of the party Serb List. 

According to the website of “Kosovo Online”, the entire department consists of 17 staff posted in Tirana, Belgrade, Skopje, Shtrpce, and Grancanica. The website claims that they currently have correspondents in Gracanica, Strpce, and Belgrade, as well as in Skopje, Tirana, Vienna, and Brussels, and freelance collaborators throughout Kosovo and the region. 

Although registered in Kosovo and with an Albanian working language, “Kosovo Online” is not a member of the Council of Printed Media of Kosovo (SPMK). 

According to Imer Muskolaj, President of SPMK, the transparency of this media – publishing an imprint – shows that the people behind it have a clear purpose. Muskolaj claims that transparency increases the confidence of potential readers to a certain extent because the readers have no reason to doubt something that is not a suspicious website or link. 

“They are simply saying – this is who we are. We are these people, trust us”, but when you see the background of the people working there and their working style, then something completely different comes to the surface”, he says. 

Muskolaj adds that the local Serbian media in Kosovo treat “Kosovo Online” as a de-facto “Serbian state-sponsored media” and are worried about the power it has and what it could gain in the future with the local Serbian community. 

 

Controversial contents of “Kosovo Online” 

The decision of “Kosovo Online” to publish content in both Albanian and English language proves the intention of the people behind the media, says Muskolaj. 

“The very idea that they translate the contents in the Albanian language implies that they aim to come closer to the Albanian public because the Serbian public in Kosovo has other media and need not read “Kosovo Online” since they watch RTS, PINK or media from Belgrade and their influence continues”, he says. Through the Albanian language, they are trying to attract a bigger audience so that they can influence Albanian citizens too. 

Muskolaj addresses Kosovo media reminding them not to re-publish articles from “Kosovo Online” without fact-checking contents because, according to him, they were quite problematic. 

“They look all right [at first glance], but when you go deeper you see, and even identify the purpose the article wants to achieve”, he says. 

The editorial policy of “Kosovo Online” is most directly expressed in some categories on the website. For example, in the category “Analyses” and “Context”, the medium deals with various issues about Kosovo and Serbia, but not just about them. It also has analyses of regional events. 

By analyzing several articles in this category, one can see the biased editorial policy balanced with the narratives of the Serbian Government. In addition, almost all analytical articles aim to secure a “false” balance, by interviewing both Serbian and Kosovo Albanian analysts and experts. Nevertheless, the opposition of both sides of the article seems imposed. 

For example, an article dated the 13th of February 2024 analyzing the three-year government of Albin Kurti, “Kosovo Online” specifies that for these three years, the life of the Serbian community had become more difficult than ever before. The article quotes the data from the Kosovo Office of the Government of Serbia, according to which 500 ethnically motivated incidents against Kosovo Serbs have taken place since 2021. 

The numbers related to violence towards Kosovo Serbs were denied by the Prime Minister of Kosovo himself, Albin Kurti claiming it to be propaganda by the Government of Serbia. 

The article interviews Predrag Rajic, who the article calls just a person from the “Centre for Social Stability” without mentioning his relations with the Serbian Government. Rajic was a Member of the Serbian Parliament from the Serbian Progressive Party of President Aleksandar Vucic in the period 2020 – 2022 as well as special adviser to the former Internal Affairs Minister, Milos Vucevic. In June 2024 he was also appointed internal policy adviser to Vucevic after he took over the office of the Prime Minister. 

In the article, Rajic reiterated that the last three years were marked with “Kurti’s viciousness and drive on the verge of pathological urges to banish all Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija as to cause a war between the Serbs and Albanians in the Balkans, which, in turn, would lead to a war between the Serbs and NATO”. 

According to him, Kurti opposed some criticism of his behavior from the West and that it was “absolutely clear that we are dealing with a fanatic who was trying to present his messiah role because he wanted to unite those that he deemed Albanian countries so that he will enter history as someone who created “Great Albania” and to become the first all-Albanian leader with Pristina the capital city of that Albania instead of Tirana”. 

Rajic, who is constantly quoted as an expert on issues in “Kosovo Online”, holds the same opinions as those that are repeated by the Government of Serbia. 

In the meantime, “Kosovo Online” also interviews Agim Shahini, the President of the Kosovo Business Alliance, alongside a former Serbian deputy and government advisor. Shahini, however, has no expertise in matters such as the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, which fails to provide a balanced perspective in the article.

Apart from the partial presentation of facts from the latest Kosovo events, this medium transmits constantly the narrative against the West and the NATO intervention in Kosovo in 1999, just like the Government of Serbia that calls it “former Yugoslavia aggression”.  

On the 26th of May, an analytical article upon the occasion of marking the 25th anniversary of the Pashtrik battle that started on 26 May 1999 during the bombing of NATO, claims that this battle was the second attempt for land conquest of former Yugoslavia after Koshare. There, they interviewed former YNA generals in command of the Army against the Albanian population in Kosovo called KLA “terrorist” and used the word “shiptar” without being corrected by the “Kosovo Online” editors. 

The language used by the interviewed persons who are often part of the Government of Serbia or persons interviewed in the capacity of experts but with fundamentally one-sided pro-Serbian positions is full of racism and hate speech for the Kosovar Albanians. 

“Kosovo Online” editorial staff, not only allows this language in its contents, but it also provides a platform for promoting assessments that are not based on evidence, for example when Kurti’s actions against the Kosovo Serbs are called genocide without designating a fact for that. On the other side, the genocide in Srebrenica is denied although declared as such by the International Court of Justice, promoting votes, including that of the Deputy Director of “Kosovo Online”, Milos Garic, who was against the adoption of the UN Resolution for declaring 11 July for International Remembrance Day of the Genocide in Srebrenica. 

Hence, the editorial policy is not apparent only in the selection of interviewed persons and the arguments transmitted, but it is also found in the articles written by the employees themselves. 

For example, in an article dated 12 June 2024, Milos Garic, Deputy Director of “Kosovo Online” and editor of the rubric “Context”, “contextualized” the speech of Prime-minister Kurti during his visit to Turkey where he met with the Albanian diaspora. Kurti, inter alia, had said that apart from strengthening Kosovo’s defense, the subject of Security Education will be introduced in the schools. 

“However, we are also looking into comprehensive protection or total protection therefore, if our fatherland is threatened, then every citizen will have a role and function in the defence of the security of the country. Hence, comprehensive protection, on the one side, and Security Education in schools, on the other side, are very important for our country, and our Government has already started designing and implementing that, stated Kurti. 

Garic’s article, which resembles a “semi-analytical analysis”, offering opinions and interviewing some other people, calls the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) “terrorists and local gangs” in one of its paragraphs, while the intervention of NATO is named aggression on Serbia, etc. 

While trying to contextualize why the introduction of the subject of Security Education would be detrimental, Garic claims that the children in Kosovo are growing up in an anti-Serb propaganda environment caused by the media, governmental institutions, and school curricula. Apart from that, he is trying to frame Kosovo as a country of religious extremists. 

One of the interviewed persons says that Kosovo “is already a militarized society” and that, according to some assessments, “half a million long weapons can be found in Kosovo homes”. Another interviewed person says that with the introduction of this subject, Kurti wanted to prepare future generations for the concept of “armed people”. None of these two claims of the interviewed persons were checked by the author, nor were facts offered in support of these arguments. 

Similar to “Kosovo Online”, Informer.rs had reported the same statement of Kurti, providing space on the cover page dated 12 June with the headline ”Kurti preparing children in school for a new war with the Serbs in Kosovo”. 

“Kosovo Online” was involved in denying Serbian documented atrocities and whose denial was criticized by the European Union. Similarly, the Serbian Government and pro-governmental media denied the massacre at Racak dated 16 January 1999. At the beginning of this year, upon the occasion of marking the 25th anniversary of the event, “Kosovo Online” interviewed mainly persons who believe that the Racak massacre was a “fabrication” used by the West to initiate the intervention by NATO. 

In February 2023, the regional Reporting Diversity Network (RDN) elected “Kosovo Online” as ”Troll of the Month” due to its denial of the Racak massacre. 

“During the 2023 commemoration of the anniversary of the massacre at Racak, as usual, William Walker attended the event. However, on this occasion, the online portal “Kosovo Online” used the opportunity to spread the position of their Editor-in-Chief who openly negated the massacre in Racak. The editor of the portal, Miloš Garić openly stated that this was a ‘falsification of history’, and that the actual version of events was that Serbian forces were fighting against members of the Kosovo Liberation Army whose primary goal was to ‘take away’ Kosovo from Serbia, claims the elaboration of RDN that elects Troll of the Month regularly. 

The Balkan Troll of the Month is an individual, a group of individuals, or a medium that spreads hatred based on gender, ethnic background, religion, or other diversity categories. Balkan Troll is elected based on hate-speech incidents identified in the Western Balkan region. 

“Kosovo Online” calls it“Western propaganda” and the persons selected for interviews by this medium are also treated in other articles that cover propaganda as a tool for NATO’s intervention in Kosovo. Part of this propaganda, according to these articles, was the fabrication of crimes perpetrated by Serbia to justify NATO’s intervention, including the Racak massacre and Arkan’s involvement in the murders of Albanians. They insist that in wartime, the West had all media on its side, while Serbia did not have the capacity to face such propaganda machinery. 

 

Caricatures and disinformation 

The editorial policy of “Kosovo Online” is clearly stated in the rubric “Caricature” which is published regularly. The caricature dated 19 April, when discussions on the potential membership of the country within the Council of Europe were still ongoing, the medium showed two Albanians – drawn with white qeleshes, the traditional caps worn by Albanians. Both Albanian characters are happily jumping with the flag of the Council of Europe. Underneath their feet, however, two Serbs are lying down and drawn with traditional Serbian caps, shaikaca. Stars are drawn on the head of one of the Serbs, usually used to depict when someone has been hurt, while the other Serb is holding his head with both hands. 

The caricature can be interpreted as part of the Serbian narrative that despite the banishment of Kosovo Serbs, the European Union, and the international community in general, was rewarding Kosovo. 

The influence of the EU and the USA in Kosovo, in general, is depicted through the caricatures. For example, on 18 February last year, the published caricature showed a plant in a vase with the Kosovo flag – symbolizing Kosovo – shown as a terrifying carnivorous plant. A sleeve with an American flag is watering the plant, suggesting that the USA is supporting or caring for Kosovo. The aggressive appearance of the plant implies that such support incites something dangerous or threatening. The image is reflecting the critical position towards the American involvement in Kosovo, suggesting that American assistance contributes to a “wilder” Kosovo. 

Another caricature published on 12 March shows a person dressed in a jacket with a Kosova flag and a qeleshe. A hand, most probably representing external influence, offers a pair of earphones with flags of the United States and the European Union on each side. This picture suggests that Kosovo is under the influence or managed by the USA and the European Union. The earphones could symbolize how these external forces shape what Kosovo is listening to or following, reflecting their important role in the political and social issues in Kosovo. 

On 6 March 2024, when every year in Kosovo the course of three days remember the murder of the KLA commander, Adem Jashari, and his family of more than 50 members by the Serbian forces in 1998, “Kosovo Online” published a caricature targeting Adem Jashari. The caricature depicts a heap of skulls and bones, symbolizing death and destruction, with a nameplate “Adem Jashari 1955 – 1998”. Many Albanians in Kosovo see a hero in Adem Jashari due to his role in the fight against Serbian Forces, while the Serbian narrative deems him an “Albanian terrorist”. The use of skulls and bones in the caricature implies criticism towards Jashari, presenting him as responsible for the death and violence of Kosovo Serbs, a claim that was used also as justification for the repression of the Albanians in the Nineties of the last century. 

(No) institutional response to disinformation by the Serbian Government 

Muskolaj assesses that the contents of the medium “Kosovo Online” as extremely dangerous for Kosovo’s security. 

“But if we look at the Serbian language contents, it is extremely problematic. The contents, to a large extent, in many cases encourage hate-speech towards the Albanians, not just with articles, but also with caricatures and opinions. One can see that the medium is funded by the Government of Serbia for the interests of the Republic of Serbia, which has found suitable ground in Kosovo, and I think that – as contents – it should be monitored by the security services”, he says. 

In the last three years, disinformation from Serbia was so frequent, especially that serving the narrative about “persecution”, “banishment” and “ethnic cleansing” of Kosovo Serbs, which was denied by the Kosovo Police several times. Kosovo Police especially responded to the cases when the incidents in the Serb-majority municipalities were ethnically colored. 

The authors of the article addressed the Kosovo Police with specific questions about the capacity of the Communications Unit to deny the disinformation coming from the Serbian Government in the security area whether they were offered training on dealing with disinformation and how they made decisions when to deny a given disinformation, because they were not doing that regularly. The response of the Police, however, was generic: 

“With respect to the public and media, Kosovo Police (KP) is cooperative and applies a professional approach enabling clear mutual communication based on appropriate authorizations and competencies. The Police cooperate with the media for the purpose of promptly, truthfully, and correctly informing the public about the events that take place in the security area in the country as well as about Police activities. In terms of communication and public relations/media, Kosovo Police has sufficient capacity as well as appropriately trained communications officers who can also deal with disinformation. In specific cases regarding issues related to policing, KP explains/denies disinformation and misinformation to the public”. 

Last April, in an interview given for “Tell the Truth” (“Kallxo Përnime”), the Deputy Director of Kosovo Police for North Kosovo, Veton Elshani, stated that in his entire 24 years of experience, he had never encountered more disinformation about the North than now. 

He said that Kosovo Police decided to let go of Banjska without fully checking the assault from 24 September 2023 exactly because of the disinformation spread about Serbian citizens “being left inside without any drinking water”. According to him, KP decided to open Banjska for traffic so that the media could access to see the reality and the way Serbian citizens lived. 

Similar questions about its engagement in denying disinformation coming from Serbia were directed also to the Government of Kosovo, especially in terms of informing the media in 2022 about the appointment of special officers within the Ministry for denying disinformation. The spokesperson of the Government of Kosovo, Perparim Krieziu, did not respond specifically, but he said that the Kosovo Government takes into consideration the current geopolitical situation and Serbia’s aggressive approach, and therefore strengthened its efforts and enhanced the structures fighting against disinformation. 

“Fake news is circulating in many of the Serbian media and various online networks and platforms in Kosovo, hence the need to deny is great. Special working groups within the framework of the competent ministries to monitor and deny such news were established in urgent cases. In the meantime, we proceed with regular cooperation with local fact-checking platforms such as Kallxo.com/BIRN”. 

According to Krieziu, the Government of Kosovo has been cooperating with communication teams from the British Government, supported by the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Kosovo for more than a year. 

“This cooperation enabled various training programs and practices for the communications officers from different institutions, not just the Government”, said Krieziu. 

In April Krieziu stated that the public relations units were still not capable of fighting against disinformation. 

In the meantime, recent reports show how dangerous were the sources of disinformation such as “Kosovo Online” in inciting interethnic hatred and division. Mid-June, the Second Index of Vulnerability to Disinformation in Kosovo was released within the framework of the Information Integrity Conference, DISICON 7, organized by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and USAID in Kosovo. This index measures five pillars – media environment, political landscape, public perceptions, interethnic relations, and gender-based disinformation – about how vulnerable they were to disinformation and malign foreign influence. 

Overall, vulnerability scores 57 from a total of 100 points or 16 points more than in 2022. According to the Index, the most vulnerable are interethnic relations with 69 out of 100 points. 

 

 

Authors: Gentiana Pacarizi and Uran Haxha

This article was developed in partnership with the regional initiative Western Balkans Anti-Disinformation Hub, implemented by the Metamorphosis Foundation, with the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The contents of the article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the project partners and supporters.