Original article (in Montenegrin) was published on 05/10/2023; Author: Nina Đuranović
Citizens of our region are divided when it comes to NATO, otherwise a go-to topic for disinformation, conspiracy theories and other manipulations.
NATO is often depicted as an enemy of our culture and religion, as evidenced by a Facebook post that calls attention to the alleged statement by Lt. Col. Ben Hodges about the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), which triggered numerous negative reactions.
“For NATO, the Serbian Orthodox Church is the only threat to finishing the work in the Balkans. We will use all the resources we have to destroy it,” said the statement by Lieutenant General Franklin Ben Hodges.
First of all, it is worth noting that Franklin Ben Hodges is a retired US lieutenant general.
The fact that he does not hold an official function in US Army or the NATO Alliance renders his statement irrelevant and certainly cannot represent NATO’s “serious” strategic plan.
The statement about the SPC is actually an interpretation by the Sputnik Serbia portal, which took a biased approach in carrying over lieutenant general’s interview with the Voice of America published in 2019.
In an interview with Voice of America, Hodges said that the United States of America should have a more prominent i.e. a leading role in the Balkans and in talks between presidents of Serbia and Kosovo.
“Our commitment must be sustainable, not an episodic one. We can’t say, let’s hold a conference about it, and then immediately move on to something else,” Hodges told VOA.
“Therefore, I think we need to help provide an opportunity for Vucic and Thaci and give them some space to be able to come to a final agreement. That does not just mean no ‘red lines’ imposed from the outside, but also help protect them from pressures from Russia. For example, help Serbia deal with internal pressures they have from the Orthodox Church. “
Sputnik Serbia conveyed its own interpretation of Hodges’ message, saying that “he labelled the SPC as the main threat to wrapping things up in the Balkans”.
“Lieutenant General Franklin Ben Hodges, the former commanding general of US land forces in Europe, said in a recent interview with “Voice of America” that Serbia and countries of the region “need to be provided with support and protection from Russia’s pressure”, while labelling the SPC as the main threat to finishing the work in the Balkans.
The US general indicated, among other things, that in solving the Kosovo issue, Serbia “should be helped to resist the pressures coming from the Orthodox Church with respect to Russia.”
Therefore, former US Lieutenant General Hodges did say that Serbia should be helped to resist the pressures of the Orthodox Church related to Russia, as reported by the regional media at the time.
However, it is clear that at no point in the interview did Hodges say that the SPC is the only threat to NATO in finishing its work in the Balkans, nor that NATO will be using all of its resources to destroy the SPC.
The article published by Sputnik and their take on Hodges’ interview were then carried over by numerous other regional as well as local pro-Serb media, and the thus misconstrued view found its way to social media users that embraced it as authentic.
Due to the fact that the former US lieutenant general, Franklin Ben Hodges, never stated that “SPC is for NATO the only threat to finishing the work in the Balkans” and that they will use all the resources at their disposal to destroy it, this article is flagged as fake news.
The “Fake News” label is assigned to an original media report (entirely produced by the media that originally published it) that contains factually incorrect claims or information. The contents labelled as fake news are those identified with full certainty as having been created and disseminated with the intention of disinforming the public and presenting an otherwise completely false claim as a fact.