Original article (in Montenegrin) was published on 05/04/2023
After the announcement of the results of the presidential elections in Montenegro, messages from important domestic and international addresses ensued, and some of them referred to the assessment of the quality of the election process.
The election process was monitored by the OSCE/ODIHR observation mission, whose conclusions were presented at a press conference held on April 3.
“Kyrtsos: I expected to see more Montenegrin flags on the streets during the celebrations; Meszerics: The celebration was peaceful, old Montenegrin flags were waved”, is the title of the article published on the Antena M web portal, which conveys the main messages from the mentioned conference.
“Responding to a journalist’s question whether last night’s celebration with the flags of another country was appropriate, and whether this is the case in some other countries, Kyrtsos says that he expected more Montenegrin flags”, the article of the Antena M portal reads.
News featuring the same title was also found on the Glas CG web portal, as well as on the Gradski.me portal, where the title was subsequently changed (as evidenced by the existing URL address of the available link, as well as the post on the portal’s Facebook page, which is still available), without clear information about the change.
This information was then shared by Facebook users. The mentioned statement is not true.
The head of the European Parliament (EP) delegation, Georgios Kirtsos, did not say he expected to see more Montenegrin flags on the streets during the celebrations. This is proven by the recording of the press conference available on the official Facebook page of the OSCE. In the press conference video, it can be clearly heard (16:35) that Kirtsos said he expected more European Union (EU) flags.
“I expected to see more flags of the European Union. There were enough flags of the European Union in the headquarters of the two candidates. I can tell you that the overall atmosphere during the elections was positive”, announced the head of the EP delegation, answering a question from a journalist from Gradska TV (15:43).
The Pobjeda.me web portal also published that Kyrtsos was talking about EU flags.
So, it is obvious that some Montenegrin media reported the statement of the head of the EP delegation incorrectly, which is why we rate those media announcements as misinformation.
A media report that contains a “mix” of facts and inaccurate or half-true content is rated “Disinformation”. In such cases, the media may not necessarily be aware of incorrect information being published alongside the truth. Also, reports with false attributions or titles that do not reflect the text’s information accuracy will be treated with this rating.