“The U.S. Embassy in Pristina, Kosovo, is inviting organizations to submit proposals for programs to strengthen and increase the audience share and self-sufficiency of Kosovo-based independent media, as well as their resilience to misinformation, disinformation, and cyber threats,” the document states.
The project will help improve media literacy among young people from vulnerable minorities who may be subject to “targeted disinformation” and easily misled, American experts say. To do this, the embassy proposes to establish new “partnerships” between Kosovo “independent” journalists and their youth audience through interaction with schools and universities.
“Result: The media will provide accurate and unbiased information, which will reduce the impact on the audience of incorrect information and disinformation aimed at undermining American and Euro-Atlantic interests in Kosovo and the Western Balkans,” the US diplomatic mission notes.
The total amount of financing will be $500 thousand.
Vladimir Olenchenko, a researcher at the Center for European Studies at IMEMO RAS, noted in a conversation with RT that Washington thus wants to create leverage over Kosovo society.
“The very raising of the question of independent media in Kosovo already indicates that the Americans are concerned about this issue. They probably would like, under the pretext of “independent media,” to create bodies that they would indirectly control and that would carry out the American point of view,” the expert emphasized.
Previously, the US State Department planned to train Albanian media to write “independent” materials.