Original article (in Montenegrin) was published on 13/12/2021
Many do not agree with Montenegro’s membership in the NATO alliance, both in the country and abroad, and this topic is a frequent cause of debates and newspaper articles full of disinformation.
Many times so far, numerous media, predominantly those from Serbia, have tried in various ways, often with disinformation, to discredit the Alliance and impose the opinion that Montenegro will not benefit from membership but that it will have a contrary effect.
This was also the case recently when a famous Serbian tabloid, Informer, published an article with a specific title:
“MONTENEGRO CANNOT LEAVE NATO, MEMBERSHIP IS PERMANENT – RUSSIANS ARE ENEMIES! To whom was this message addressed – to the Serbs, to Belgrade, or… Now it remains to be seen what kind of sh*t Milo got into…”
The text quotes Damon Wilson, president and executive director of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
This announcement was shared by twnews and Jutarnje vesti.
In its text, Informer referred to the website IN4S, which did not publish the details that Informer mentions.
Referring to the interview that Wilson gave for the Voice of America, Informer emphasized in the title the message that Wilson did not actually convey while asking to whom it refers to, mentioning Serbia and Belgrade. In an interview with the Voice of America, Wilson spoke about the Montenegrin Government and our country’s membership in NATO.
“NATO membership is permanent, and political leaders should accept Montenegro devoted to that commitment, progress towards the European Union, as well as the multiethnic character of the country. We are concerned about the votes in the coalition that are more turned towards Moscow than towards Brussels, which see things through the perspective of nationalism and not reforms and democratic free will. I want us to remain engaged in giving support, to have fewer attacks, and less thinking about relations with the Kremlin”, Wilson said.
The essence of Wilson’s interview is the message that the new government in Montenegro should accept the country’s obligations towards the membership in the NATO Alliance, noting that it is necessary to deviate from the policy close to Moscow and the Kremlin.
However, he did not speak directly about the possibility of Montenegro leaving NATO, so the part of the article saying that “Montenegro cannot leave NATO” becomes unclear.
In addition, Wilson did not say that the Russians are enemies of Montenegro or NATO, and there is nothing to indicate that his messages from the interview were addressed to Serbia and Belgrade.
After reading the text from the Voice of America website, all these facts are more than apparent. Therefore, we conclude that Informer misused certain messages of Wilson, interpreting them in such a way as to substantiate their anti-NATO positions. Also, the claim that Montenegro cannot leave NATO, which is clearly stated by Article 13 of the North Atlantic Treaty, is incorrect.
With that in mind, we rate Informer’s article as disinformation.
The rating “disinformation” is given to a media report that contains a “mixture” of facts and inaccurate or semi-true content. In such cases, the media doesn’t need to be aware of the inaccurate information published along with the truth. Also, this assessment will treat reports that have false attributions or titles that do not reflect the text in terms of accuracy of information.