Prepared by: Ridona Berisha

On June 26th, the Serbian portal Novosti published an article titled "Prishtina is planning to make even more massive and brutal arrests of Serbs on the day of the visit: Cameras installed at Gazimestan." Despite the biased title, this claim by Novosti is not supported by the content of the article.

In the published article, Novosti only mentions their own editorial team as a source, without providing any data or facts to support their claims. As for the claim that "cameras have been installed around the area," no photographs are provided in the text to confirm such a thing.

The Serbian media outlet, which also has coverage in Serbian-populated areas in Kosovo, has attempted to instill fear among the citizens of this community by stating that the Kosovo Police has planned to torture visitors during the Vidovdan celebration, historically celebrated by Serbs at Gazimestan, near Pristina.

"The plan was for much more brutal and massive arrests of Serbs, which occurs every year during the Vidovdan celebration at Gazimestan," the article states.

The same news was also spread by other media outlets supportive of Vučić, such as Alo, Informer, Srbija Danas, and Kurir.

Regarding these reports, the so-called chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Kosovo, Millovan Drecun, has also written about this. According to him, Kurti's goal is for Serbs to not live in Kosovo at all.

"Kurti has compiled a list of around 350 Serbs whom he labels as terrorists, and the Serbian people have had their room for action restricted. After the blockades of last year, there was a demand to avoid further barricades, even though Pristina continues to do so by placing police checkpoints in northern Kosovo." Drecun stated.

*This article is published as part of the Western Balkans Regional Initiative against disinformation. Western Balkans Anti-Disinformation Hub: exposing malign influences through watchdog journalism.