The false news published by one of the media in Kosovo, while the Serbian media quoted that after the decision to ban the use of the Serbian dinar in Kosovo, the Serbian army will enter our country, caused panic in the non-majority Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian.
The same happened in the case of a deepfake video in which the president of Serbia, Alexander Vuçiq, says that we will start the war with Kosovo again.The student at the Primary and Lower Secondary School "Ismial Luma" in Lipjan from the Ashkali community, Anita Kryeziu, said that she has read false news several times in the media, until she specified that she had allegedly read that the origin of the non-majority community is from India. Regarding this, Kryeziu said that he felt bad and that he was bullied by others at school.
In addition, Kryeziu emphasized that he did not receive the vaccine against Covid-19 because he read that upon receiving it, something will be placed on his hand."(I read) that when you get the vaccine (against Covid-19) some money or something else will be attached... Through the media I read that we are of Indian origin, I was a little affected, that at our school (they bully us) ...Today, I liked the training, I liked that we did different activities, about fake news and others...From this training, he learned how to distinguish fake news from real ones. I have saw a deepfake that the president of Serbia said that we will continue the war again, we panicked, but with the passage of time we found out that it is false. I want to participate in such trainings again", Kryeziu said.
meanwhile, Eljesa Komorani, a student at the "Ulpiana" Gymnasium, in Gadime of Lipjan from the Ashkali community, said that she read a news in the media that after the liberalization of visas, Kosovo is emptying and citizens are fleeing the country. In addition, she said that she has seen a fake news allegedly that after the decision to ban the use of the Serbian dinar in Kosovo, the Serbian army will enter Kosovo, for which she emphasized that this information has caused panic among them.
Among other things, Limani said that he has not been vaccinated against the coronavirus, because he has read in the media that many people are dying after receiving this vaccine.
"The fake news I heard is that Ronaldo went to Barcelona but he actually went to Al-NassrFC. How long ago did you read this news? Some six months ago... Did you get the Covid vaccine? ? I didn't get the vaccine (against Covid) because I heard it's not good and I heard a lot of people died from it. Did you read this somewhere? Yes, in newspapers and social networks. I liked it better in training mostly, we learned how to distinguish information from misinformation. From this training, I learned more about fake news. I think there should be more training for us to learn new things.", said Limani.
Meanwhile, the teacher of the "Family Law" course, Salih Kërpuzi, said that such trainings for non-majority communities are welcome, because according to him, disinformation and misinformation have become a trend.
"Trainings in general are welcome, especially for the non-majority community in Kosovo. Given that in legal terms they enjoy extremely rights that should be enabled to have faster and more accurate access to information. Today we live in Kosovo and misinformation and misinformation are almost a trend, especially the youth considering that they are extremely users of social networks, not that they take them for granted but more or less influence their misinformation. Especially those misinformation or networks that they serve things that put them on the streets are not good for the youth. Considering that the community is not very integrated, not through the fault of the legislations, but through their fault, 'through their fault, a bit rude'. But , bearing in mind that they lack education, lack of good life, economic conditions and so on. I teach the subject 'Family Law' at school, there we have extremely misinformation, especially in terms of violence, because sometimes it is misinterpreted and it creates panic in families, in society and so on," said Kerpuzi.
Likewise, the professor who teaches the subject "Albanian language" in one of the schools of Lipjan, Feim Olluri, said that the training on media education is targeted, because according to him, students from the non-majority community had the opportunity to learn how to distinguish fake news from real news.
"I think it is a targeted training, the children of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities, media education nowadays, with which we all use social networks, is quite important. Here the students had the opportunity to learn about misinformation, disinformation and others that come from (the media), social networks. Maybe they have learned some details that they can catch before they open the news, because the headlines are different, the content is different, this probably causes a panic when we see the headlines I think there should be training more often", said Olluri.
The project "Media education against disinformation for teachers, students and civil society activists from the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities", is supported by the United States Embassy in Pristina.