Original article (in Montenegrin) was published on 18/01/2022
The interview given by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and Special Envoy for the region, Gabriel Escobar, to the Voice of America, has received the attention of many media in the region.
Escobar’s messages in the interview were clear and precise, and the regional media altered their headlines in accordance with their country of origin.
However, some distorted the words of the American official.
A clickbait headline
The website Borba published an article with the following title:
“Escobar: DF is not America’s partner because it did not recognize Kosovo”.
The text conveys a part of Escobar’s interview in which he commented on the tensions within the ruling coalition in Montenegro. He also spoke about whether all parties of the ruling majority support the key criteria for Montenegro to remain a Western-oriented country, a vital member of NATO, and continue to progress on the path to membership in the European Union.
Escobar explained that for the United States, DF provokes divisions, encourages ethnic tensions, constantly blocks reforms in Parliament and thus blocks the path to Europe.
“They were against NATO in the past, and they were not helpful with their statements about Kosovo. So I don’t believe that has changed, and we don’t consider them to be a suitable partner”, Escobar said.
In the interview, published on the website of the Voice of America, there is no explicit statement which Borba indicated in its title.
Escobar and manipulation of his statements
In November last year, Escobar explained in an interview for TV Vijesti that for now, DF is not a partner of the United States because that political group is more focused on ethnic divisions than economic reconstruction and they were the main obstacles to adopting budgets and laws.
Even then, he did not say that DF is not a partner of the United States because they did not recognize Kosovo.
Kosovo’s independence has not been recognized by five EU member states – Greece, Slovakia, Cyprus, Romania, and Spain, which foster partnerships with the United States. Many other UN members do not recognize Kosovo, including countries from the American continent and G20 members with which the United States has developed economic and political cooperation.
We rate Borba’s text as a manipulation of facts.
The “manipulation of facts” rating is given to a media report that uses known and accurate facts but interprets them in a misleading way. These reports generally use accurate information to draw inaccurate conclusions or claims, thus misleading media content consumers in relation to the actual meaning of the facts presented.
The same publication also received a clickbait rating. This rating is given to a media report whose title has no basis in the text that follows. Such texts and articles aim to attract consumers’ attention with sensationalist titles, promising content that does not actually exist, and they are mostly created out of financial interest, i.e., due to increased readership.