Kosovo’s Broadcaster at Crossroads as MPs Ready to Sack Board

Ilir Bytyci, member of the board of Kosovo’s public broadcaster, Radio Television of Kosovo, RTK, submitted his abrupt resignation on Thursday, claiming he was quitting to distance himself from “all the illegal actions and possible ethical code violations” occurring in RTK. He also cited an inability to “change things from the inside”.

Sali Bashota, head of the RTK board, followed by issuing a statement saying the resignation was illegal, as it should have been submitted three months in advance.

In recent months, BIRN has reported that while Bashota was a member of the board, his son-in-law was hired as a janitor in RTK, which is against the law, as members of the board are forbidden from employing relatives.

BIRN has also reported how family members of former Kosovo president Hashim Thaci were hired as a copyright expert, a camera operator and in the marketing department.

Allegations of nepotism


Kosovo public broadcaster, RTK, board reporting to the parliamentary commission. Photo: BIRN

In the last couple of months, Bashota and Ngadhnjim Kastrati, RTK’s General Director, were grilled about these employments by two parliamentary commissions that oversee the RTK.

Bashota admitted that his son-in-law had been hired, while Kastrati defended the employment of Thaci family members, claiming that MPs should not interfere in recruitment processes.

However, citing BIRN’s investigations and other violations, Fadil Hoxha, head of RTK’s Independent Workers’ Union, met Glauk Konjufca, speaker of parliament, on May 6, and submitted a request for parliament, as the broadcaster’s oversight body, to dismiss the board.

Finally, on Tuesday, the Parliamentary Committee on Public Administration, Local Government, Media and Regional Development voted to dismiss the board, following a recommendation from the Parliamentary Committee on Budget, Labour and Transfers.

This sets the stage for parliament to dismiss the entire board of RTK in a session due next week.

Valon Ramadani, member of the committee from the ruling Vetevendosje party, on Tuesday said that RTK needs change.

“RTK needs reform and more accountability. The state budget allocates it around 15 million euros a year, and we don’t know where this money is being spent,” Ramadani said.

He was referring to claims that management has not allowed the National Audit Office to audit RTK, although it is common practice for the national auditor to audit public institutions.

Although RTK refused auditing in the past, on Tuesday the board said it had informed the National Audit Office that it was ready for a financial audit, while citing “legal limitations” over whether the broadcaster should be subject to such a process.

Armend Muja, a Vetevendosje MP, told BIRN that they recommended the dismissal of the board because of “their professional inability and continuous failure to implement their duties”.

Doarsa Kicaj, head of the media committee, read out some of the recommendations from the budget committee, which listed a number of issues with the board.

Kicaj highlighted the budget committee’s finding that RTK’s management had refused to be audited, and the failure to comply with procurement procedures and compile a legally required long-term strategy.

“If all these issues are not important to you, it’s painful,” Kicaj said, adding that the broadcaster needs to be accountable for receiving millions of euros of taxpayers’ money a year.

However, representatives of the opposition parties in the commissions, the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, the Democratic League for Kosovo, LDK, and Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, are either objecting or absenting themselves from the debate about the board’s dismissal.

One of PDK’s representatives on the budget committee, Mergim Lushtaku, said the findings of the committee were not enough evidence to initiate the dismissal of the board.

Lushtaku conceded that RTK was not in good shape but insisted that the board should not be dismissed for what he described as political reasons.

The LDK representative on the committee, Agim Veliu, recently sacked as head of the LDK branch in Podujevë, where he was mayor, claimed that sacking the board was a political act, and an attempt to capture a public media that should be independent.

The day the parliamentary commission approved the request to dismiss the RTK board, Enver Hoxhaj, acting head of the biggest opposition party, the PDK, accused Vetevendosje and Prime Minister Albin Kurti of trying to control the media and public opinion.

“What we in the PDK have warned about is happening; two things characterise this government: political fraud in the absence of a proper government programme, and authoritarianism as the only way they know,” Hoxhaj posted on Facebook. The board has also said the proposed dismissal is a violation of the Law on RTK.

“The political fight against this media, constructed over ‘alternative facts’, is unjust and is aimed at instrumentalising the public broadcaster for political reasons,” the board said in its reaction on the day the recommendation for its dismissal was voted.

“RTK Board has been and remains open to provide answers to parliament as RTK’s founder on any issue related to its scope, under any situation and circumstances,” it added.

Warnings of possible politicisation

Illustration. Photo: BIRN/ Urim Krasniqi

A media lawyer, Flutura Kusari, told BIRN that she welcomes the initiative to dismiss the board.

“The misuses that have happened over the decades should end. It is important that those responsible for destruction or allowing the regress of RTK to be held accountable,” Kusari said.

But, besides the dismissal, Kusari said the way the governing coalition handles the situation afterwards is important, and future board members should not be politically affiliated.

“What should happen next is that Vetevendosje and other government coalition partners must immediately start the process of selecting new members and that those elected must not be political figures. They should not elect anyone who has supported Vetevendosje, as it is very important that the election of a new board is not questioned by anyone,” Kusari added.

Arta Berisha, a media expert, says that in recent years RTK has lost its primacy in Kosovo’s media scene.

“With its budget and public responsibility, which it enjoys by law, RTK should have been in front of the changes that came as a result of the internet … and not remain hostage to those who have gone too far, publishing misleading and disinformation content,” he said.

Vulnerable to government pressure

In its 2020 Progress Report, the European Commission ruled that Kosovo’s public broadcaster “remains vulnerable to political pressure and influence”.

“To date, the broadcaster remains directly state-funded, with its budget determined annually by the Assembly [parliament]. This undermines its independence, weakens its long-term sustainability and leaves it prone to political influence,” the report said.

RTK was established by the UN provisional administration in Kosovo, UNMIK, in September 1999.

Initially, it was financed through compulsory monthly payments, with each family owning a TV paying 3.5 euros via their electricity bill.

In 2009, Kosovo’s Constitutional Court suspended this way of financing. Pending an amendment to the law, RTK has been financed directly by the state budget since.

In 2012, four years after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, parliament approved a law on RTK but it has not resolved the issue of its property.

In 2016, the broadcaster faced an eviction ultimatum by the Kosovo Agency of Privatisation for illegally occupying the premises of the now-defunct Radio Television of Pristina, RTP. However, the ultimatum was never applied.

“The current board has not proposed any strategy to ensure adequate, sustainable and transparent financing,” the Commission wrote in its justification for the board’s dismissal.

Often accused of over-employment, in 2020 RTK reported 1,024 employees including 806 with regular contracts and 216 others working part time as journalists, actors or correspondents. The report says that 68.5 percent of RTK’s budget goes on salaries.

Media expert Arta Berisha says it is important for RTK to have professionals in its ranks while politics should not interfere in its job.

“RTK should have autonomy and function in line with professional norms, oriented toward ethics and in the service of the public,” Berisha said.

Flutura Kusari meanwhile thinks that RTK would have a future if those responsible for “its destruction” face justice.

“The motion to dismiss the board is only the first step which should be followed by a parliamentary and criminal inquiry. There is no future if those who have taken RTK to the brink of destruction are not held accountable,” Kusari concluded.

Attack on Kosovo Investigative Journalist Condemned

International and local Kosovo press associations have condemned the attack against an investigative journalist who was brutally beaten near his house in Fushe Kosove/Kosovo Polje, at around midnight on Wednesday.

Visar Duriqi, a journalist of the local Kosovo online news portal Insajderi as well as the author and producer of local show INDOKS, was assaulted by three unidentified individuals at around midnight after a TV debate.

“Three people had been waiting for the journalist Duriqi, in front of the entrance of his apartment. He was attacked as soon as he got out of his car,” Insajderi reported on Thursday.

Duriqi has authored several episodes on crime and corruption on Insajderi’s show, INDOKS.

The police are investigating the case.

“It is suspected that three masked persons attacked the victim with fists at the entrance of his apartment, causing bodily injuries. The victim was sent to the UCCK (University Clinical Center of Kosovo in Pristina), for necessary medical treatment and then he was discharged,” a police statement read.

The Association of Journalists of Kosovo, AJK, condemned the attack as a threat to freedom of “speech and media” and called on the authorities “to investigate the motives … and shed light over this case”. The AJK pledged also to inform domestic and international stakeholders.

On Thursday, the European Center for Press and Media Freedom, ECPMF, on Twitter also condemned “this brutal attack on journalist Visar Duriqi” and urged Chief Prosecutor Aleksander Lumezi “to urgently and thoroughly investigate and hold the criminals responsible to account”. 

Flutura Kusari, legal advisor at ECMPF, wrote on Facebook that “violence against journalists in Kosovo is on the rise” and added that it can only be curbed if the punishments of attackers include “harsh sentences”, similarly to when a politician is attacked.

OSCE Chides Kosovo for Preventing Entry of Serbian Journalists

The OSCE Mission in Kosovo has said it is “concerned” about the recent denial of entry to the country by journalistic crews from Serbia at the Jarinje crossing point.

“Such actions not only contribute to the difficulties that journalists face in conducting their work, but also send a negative message about press freedom and the tolerance for a pluralistic media landscape,” OSCE Kosovo wrote on its Facebook account.

A crew for the Radio Television Serbia TV Show Right to Tomorrow was banned from entering Kosovo on Thursday. The show’s editor, Svetlana Vukumirovic, told RTS they were banned from entering because they did not announce their arrival 72 hours earlier.

“No one ever asked the show’s crew or other journalists to announce themselves in such a way before,” Vukumirovic told RTS.

Earlier, an RTS journalistic team tried to enter Kosovo on February 15, but were also denied permission. Four days later, they were officially banned from entry. The Journalists’ Association of Serbia, UNS, in a press release condemned an “attack on press freedom”.

The Association of Journalists of Kosovo and Metohija, which represents Kosovo Serb media, organised a protest on the border line on Wednesday. Association president Budimir Nicic said stopping RTS journalists from entering Kosovo was “classic harassment”.

“This is a classic harassment, this is a classic threat to human rights and media freedoms, this is a violation of all civilization values ​​and norms, and must stop,” Nicic said at the protest.

The Serbian government’s liaison officer with Pristina, Dejan Pavicevic, told the UNS that only senior state officials had an obligation to announce their arrival in advance – not journalists.

“This only applies to top government officials … We will now ask Brussels to take concrete steps because this is a flagrant violation of the [2013 Brussels] Agreement [between Belgrade and Pristina], on freedom of movement and the right of journalists to freedom of reporting,” Pavicevic told UNS.

The Independent Journalist Association of Serbia, NUNS, warned “that the journalistic profession does not serve for political undercutting and collecting points, but to report honestly and credibly on events that are of public importance”.

Kosovo and Serbia reached an agreement about officials’ visits in 2014 that included a procedure for announcing visits of officials from one country to the other. However, both countries have continued stopping officials from entering from the other country, often without explanation.

Online Petition Urging Netflix to Recognise Kosovo Gains Momentum

An online petition calling on the US online streaming platform Netflix to recognise Kosovo as separate from Serbia has received over 23,000 signatures since its launch on Tuesday and caught public attention in the country.

“When Kosovars log in on Netflix, their location appears as if they were in Serbia, even though they use Netflix from the Republic of Kosovo,” the organiser, Sovran Hoti, wrote in the petition.

Kosovo-based Netflix users “cannot even verify their phone number because Kosovo does not appear on the list of countries with their phone entries,” he added.

“Netflix is a US company, and since the US recognises Kosovo, shouldn’t Netflix add Kosovo as a country on their streaming service as well?” he asked.

Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in February 17, 2008 but its statehood remains contested.

The country has been recognised by more than 110 countries so far but Serbia has vowed never to recognise it and is supported in this by powerful allies, including Russia and China. Five EU member states have also withheld diplomatic recognition.

“The propaganda by Serbia to undermine Kosovo in the international arena continues, especially in major online platforms. This needs to change. Serbia has no jurisdiction in Kosovo and its institutions, and our independence cannot be undermined by them,” Hoti said in his petition.

The petition has caught the attention of leading politicians and cultural figures in Kosovo itself. Acting President Vjosa Osmani went on Twitter to support the initiative.

Kosovo citizens “deserve to be recognised for this [streaming Netflix]. It’s about time you put the Republic of Kosovo on your map”, she said, referencing the company directly.

Other personalities such as former Deputy Prime Minister Haki Abazi and the co-founder of the Prishtina Film Festival, Fatos Berisha, have also joined the call.

Share Your Experience: Violations on Social Media

We’re looking for people who are willing to share their experience with us to help in a story we’re currently working on. Scroll down for information on how to part take.

The key things we want to know:

  • What type of violations have you reported?
  • In what language was the content?
  • How was the report processed? 

What do we consider to be violations of social media community guidelines:

  • Violent threats (direct or indirect)
  • Harassment, which entails inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of others
  • Hateful conduct, which entails promoting violence against or directly attacking or threatening other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability or disease.

Things to note:

We are looking for social media users that reported content in the Bosnian, Serbian, Montenegrin, Albanian, and Macedonian languages. We want to hear as many different experiences from all around Southeast Europe.

Your stories will be used to help us with an ongoing investigation.

How to take part?

To submit your experience, all you need to do is fill out this form.

You can also contact us via email: readerstories@birn.eu.com.

Or you can reach us on social media…

FB: @balkaninsight

TW: @balkaninsight

We’ll need to receive your application by midnight, January 15, 2021.

Questionary is available in English, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian/Montenegrin, Macedonian, and Albanian.

Kosovo Political Activist ‘Misled Authorities’ to Get Media Commission Job

Granit Musliu, who was elected as a member of the Independent Media Commission by MPs in the Kosovo Assembly on Monday, was recently active in the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, contrary to regulations prohibiting recent political involvement, BIRN has learned.

The IMC, which is responsible for the regulation, management and oversight of broadcasting frequencies in Kosovo, is under the direct authority of the Kosovo Assembly.

To be considered as a member, a candidate should not have been actively engaged in politics in the past two years. However, BIRN found that Musiu had been politically active as deputy head of the PDK’s youth wing in Skenderaj/Srbica and had participated in a PDK meeting this year.

Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) party MP Agon Batusha raised the issue on Tuesday at a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Local Government, Public Administration, Regional Development and Media, arguing that Musliu should be dismissed from the IMC.

“We realised he had been active until the beginning of the pandemic. We as the Commission have been misled,” said Batusha.

The chairman of the IMC, PDK MP Mergim Lushtaku, said that he was informed that Musliu “resigned in September last year” from the position of deputy chairman of the PDK’s Democratic Youth of Kosovo.

But Valon Ramadani, an IMC member from Vetevendosje party, said that a report published on BIRN Kosovo’s Kallxo.com website made Musliu’s political affiliations with the PDK clear.

“I congratulate Kallxo.com that they did the news in such a way that they left us no doubts at all,” said Ramadani.

Kosovo Lawmakers Play Politics with Personal Data

Personal data and the right of access to public information remain largely unprotected in Kosovo after parliament failed again to elect a Commissioner for the Information and Privacy Agency, IPA, leading critics to accuse lawmakers of playing politics with citizens’ rights.

The Information and Privacy Agency, IPA, had asked the parliament to give its director, Bujar Sadiku, the powers of the Commissioner of the Agency despite the failed recruitment process for the post.

The request was rejected by the parliamentary Committee on Security Affairs as illegal, however, and civil society groups on Thursday publicly asked the Presidency of the Assembly, especially the Speaker, Vjosa Osmani, to be vigilant and ignore such illegal requests.

On August 14, none of the three candidates for the post received the required 61 votes, the third time in two years that parliament failed to appoint a Commissioner, failure analysts attribute to narrow political interests. The British embassy, which has assisted in the recruitment process, said British experts had been withdrawn.

Flutura Kusari, a legal adviser at the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, who voluntarily monitored the recruitment process, said the British decision was a good one, but was “bad news” for Kosovo.

“It is not logical financially or politically for an ally to invest this much in a clearly politicised process,” Kusari told BIRN.

In its five years of existence, “the agency has failed from the beginning to protect our personal data,” she said. “If the Commissioner will be politicised, s/he can become a censor of public information, pleasing politicians.”

Starting ‘from zero’


The meeting of the Kosovo Committee on Security and Defence, where the annual report of the Information and Privacy Agency, IPA, for 2019 was reviewed, presented by IPA director Bujar Sadiku, June 16, 2020. Photo: Official Website of Kosovo Assembly.

Without a Commissioner, Kosovo has no institutional mechanism to implement the Law on Access to Public Documents and the Law on the Protection of the Personal Data.

The first two attempts to appoint a Commissioner failed in May and July last year due to the fall of the then government and the dissolution of parliament after the prime minister at the time, Ramush Haradinaj, resigned on being summoned for questioning by war crimes prosecutors in The Hague.

Without a Commissioner, citizens of Kosovo have no institutional means to complain and seek justice if a public or private body violates their rights to protection of their personal data or access to information. Civil society groups say that without an independent overseer, the agency could become biased in fining particular institutions or officials.

British-approved candidates

Twelve people applied for the position, cut down to five after a review of the applications. Each of the five candidates went through a two-day interview process, after which a commission selected three to be submitted to parliament.

They were Bujar Sadiku, Krenare Sogojeva-Dermaku and Muharrem Mustafa. Sadiku and Sogojeva-Dermaku had received the approval of the British Embassy as the best candidates.

The IPA is unable to impose fines on bodies that violate the law due to the absence of certain internal acts that should be signed and submitted to the government by the Commissioner, Jeton Arifi, head of the Access to Public Documents Pillar at the agency, told BIRN.

If a bank, for example, accidentally or intentionally revealed the account details of a customer, that customer would have to take the bank to court, a lengthy and potentially expensive process during which the bank could continue violating the law.

“The persistent failure to select the head of our authority is continuing to cause consequences in the prolongation of internal processes, which should have been concluded within six months from the entry into force of the relevant law,” Arifi told BIRN. The Law on Personal Data Protection entered into force on March 11, 2019.

Politicians can ‘hijack’ process

Without a Commissioner, the IPA is also unable to hire new staff and has had to halt a twinning project with Germany and Latvia.

“Now everything will start again from zero,” said Fatmire Mulhaxha Kollcaku, who heads parliament’s Committee on Security and Defence and led the interview panel for the Commissioner’s job.

“As long as we don’t have an independent institution with a competent Commission, we have two unenforceable laws,” said Mulhaxha Kollcaku, and questioned how the recruitment process would continue without the British involvement.

The British embassy said on August 17 that it would not spend British taxpayers’ money on repeating a process that had been conducted properly but which failed to end in the appointment of a Commissioner. Under the agreement with the embassy, parliament is obliged to endorse an approved candidate.

“The non-appointment of any of them calls into question the stated commitment of political parties to implement the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the British Embassy, ​​but more importantly, it sends a negative signal to independent professionals in Kosovo and their hopes to contribute in Kosovo Institutions,” the embassy said.

“Any public appointment should take into account only the interests of the country and its citizens, and not the narrow party interest.”

Without the British involvement, politicians can “hijack the process and elect politically involved people with no actual skills for the position,” warned Kusari.

Taulant Hoxha, CEO of the NGO Kosovar Civil Society Foundation, which supports the development of civil society with a focus on EU integration, told BIRN:

“It is painful that the Kosovo Assembly has to sign security agreements with foreign embassies in order to be able to elect a Commissioner. It would make sense if only the human, technical, and methodological resources to be provided with funding from the British Embassy because the Assembly of Kosovo is a new institution.”

New App Aims to Connect Albanians around the World

In the 30 years that he lived in Switzerland, Valon Asani says he never had an Albanian friend.

“There weren’t many Albanians in the town I grew up in,” said Asani, who traces his roots to Kosovo. The Albanian diaspora is big, he said, but “is very small compared to the total number of people in the countries these Albanians live in.”

So a year ago, Asani co-founded dua.com, a mobile phone app created to connect members of the sprawling ethnic Albanian diaspora around the world. And roughly 200,000 Albanians have since signed up.

Currently, only the dating arm of dua.com – due.love – is live. But 31-year-old Asani and his team plan to launch dua.help and dua.biz in early 2021.

“Dating represents only a small percentage of our goals,” he said. The ultimate goal is to create a connected global community of Albanians, uniting a diaspora scattered across the globe over the past several decades.

Via dua.help, “Albanians who travel abroad as tourists, students, or even seeking employment opportunities, can connect with Albanians who have been living there for longer and seek assistance in filing taxes, applying for a residence permit, finding a place to live and being able to adapt faster.”

Dua.biz, meanwhile, “will allow Albanian businesses in the world to connect with proper businesses run by Albanians in the Balkans and invest, which will bring revenue, create new jobs and hopefully a product-driven economy” in Kosovo and Albania as well as North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia where Albanians also live.

‘A company of Albanians’


Valon Asani, co-founder and CEO of dua.com. Photo: Courtesy of dua.com

Dua.com – dua means love/want in Albanian – is headquartered in Zurich but has offices also in Pristina, where employees are encouraged to dress casual, take naps when tired and share in cake on special occasions.

The company has plans to open offices in the Albanian capital, Tirana, and elsewhere in the Balkans where Albanians live.

“Though we’re Kosovo Albanians, we don’t want to be known as a Kosovar company but as a company of Albanians,” said Asani.

He said there was a false perception of Albanians abroad as sticking to their own, when in fact the only Albanians that many Albanian children growing up in the diaspora spend time with are their cousins or friends they make on trips back to the countries their parents emigrated from.

Taulant Abazi, the chief sales officer at dua.com had a similar experience growing up in Germany and then moving to the US for his studies.

“In my five years in Detroit, where I moved for my studies, it was not possible to meet Albanians,” said Taulant Abazi, chief sales officer at dua.com.

Adapting in the US but also in Germany, where he grew up, would have been easier had he had “the technological means to meet people of the same origin,” Abazi told BIRN.

Within months of launching, 200,000 users from more than 100 countries had created accounts on dua.com, “and 150,000 matches have been made,” Asani said.

“It’s free to sign up and 100 swipes are available over 12 hours in the free version of the app. If users want to have more swipes and to be able to change their location several times, they will need to sign up for premium.”

‘We will do it’

In the two decades since it broke away from Serbia in war and 12 years since it declared independence, the information and communication technology industry in Kosovo has taken big steps forward, but receives little state support.

According to the Central Bank of Kosovo, the country exported 31 million euros-worth of information and communication technology services between January and May 2020, slightly up on the same period of last year.

Abazi said that Dua Solutions, which he manages, is providing its technology to other industries too, having already signed contracts with firms in Croatia and Romania and entering talks with a company in Turkey.

“The technology developed by dua.com programmers can be used for every group that wants to connect worldwide,” he told BIRN, citing the example of a group of online gamers who contacted Dua Solutions to discuss the possibility of an app that would connect online game fanatics around the world.

“Kosovo is an import-dependent country,” said Asani.

“With the dua.com team we are trying to use what we are good at – developing and maintaining a technology that can be used to connect communities with different interests and backgrounds – to change the narrative and bring revenue via exports”.

Asani said Albanians in the Balkans had to get away from the oft-heard expression, hajt se bohet, meaning ‘it will be done’. “If we continue like that, it never will [be done],” he said. “So, we said, ‘po e bojm na’ – ‘we will do it’.”

Some Balkan States Waging ‘Crusade’ Against Media, Report Warns

Media freedom in Turkey, Bulgaria and Montenegro is the worst in the region, according to the 2020 World Press Freedom Index, published on Tuesday by Reporters Without Borders – but other Balkan countries have largely failed to improve.

“In southern Europe, a crusade by the authorities against the media is very active,” the report warns.

Turkey holds 154th place out of 180 countries worldwide in Reporters Without Borders’ media freedom rankings.

“Turkey is more authoritarian than ever,” the report says, noting an increase in media censorship, particularly of online outlets, despite the release of a number of imprisoned journalists.

Bulgaria is ranked in 111th place, and the report notes that despite international pressure, public radio management suspended experienced journalist Silvia Velikova, a government critic.

This highlighted the lack of independence of Bulgaria’s public broadcasting media and the hold some political leaders have over their editorial policy.

In Montenegro, which is ranked 105th, the report notes no progress, adding that authorities favour pro-government outlets while exercising pressure against other media outlets and journalists.

“In May 2018, investigative journalist Olivera Lakic was shot in the leg. Like in many previous physical attacks on journalists, Lakic’s case is still unsolved,” the report adds. It also mentioned the recent arrests of three journalists on suspicion of causing panic and disorder by publishing fake news.

Serbia is ranked in 93rd place. “After six years under the leadership of Aleksandar Vucic… Serbia has become a country where it is often dangerous to be a journalist and where fake news is gaining in visibility and popularity at an alarming rate,” the report notes.

It says that the number of verbal attacks by politicians on media has risen sharply, and that officials increasingly use inflammatory rhetoric against journalists.

It adds that the assailants who set fire to the house of investigative journalist Milan Jovanovic have yet to be convicted.

North Macedonia is ranked in 92nd place, an improvement on last year, which the report mostly attributes to the attempts for better self-regulation and the publishing of a register of professional online media.

But it also notes that municipal authorities are still able to place advertisements, which remains a tool for financial pressure on media outlets, and that the ruling party, the Social Democrats, have advertised their government’s achievements.

Moldova retains 91st position and the report notes an “extremely polarised” media landscape, with continuing concerns about ownership.

“The media empire built by former billionaire and Democratic Party boss Vladimir Plahotniuc has lost its influence but has been quickly replaced by a media group affiliated to the Democratic Party’s rival, the pro-Russian Party of Socialists,” the report says.

Albania is ranked 84th in the world, down two places from last year, a result of recently-adopted laws against defamation and tightened regulation of online media which could result in censorship and make journalists more vulnerable to government pressures.

Kosovo is ranked 70th by Reporters Without Borders, with the report noting that media in the country remains divided among ethnic lines, and that many outlets are not financially stable.

“Some of the shared concerns are physical and verbal attacks on journalists, cyber-attacks on online media as well as the lack of transparency of media ownership,” the report says.

Greece’s place in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, 65th, remains unchanged this year.

Croatia moves up five places and is now ranked 59th, but the report notes that the government is still meddling in the affairs of the national broadcaster, HRT, the defamation is still criminalised and that investigative journalists are often the targets of harassment campaigns.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is ranked 58th, also scoring a five-point rise. The report says the further collapse of public service broadcasters in the country is one of the main weaknesses, along with the polarised political climate, marked by constant verbal attacks and nationalist rhetoric, which “has created a hostile environment for press freedom”.

Romania is ranked 48th in the global index – the best position of all Balkan countries – but the report highlights some continuing shortcomings.

“The attitude towards journalism and free speech that prevails within the state and the political class continues to encourage censorship and self-censorship,” it says.

“The media’s funding mechanisms are opaque or even corrupt, and editorial policies are subordinated to owner interests. The media have gradually been turned into political propaganda tools and are routinely subjected to surveillance by the security services,” it adds.

The report marks Norway, Finland and Denmark as the three best countries in the world for press freedom, while Eritrea, Turkmenistan and North Korea are at the bottom of the list of 180 countries.

Reporters Without Borders says the report shows that the decade ahead will be “decisive for the future of journalism, with the COVID-19 pandemic highlighting and amplifying the many crises that threaten the right to freely reported, independent, diverse and reliable information”.

Prominent Kosovo Serb Journalist Says Intimidation Worsening with COVID-19

Arrested on April 11 while trying to report on the fight against COVID-19, a prominent journalist in the mainly Serb north of Kosovo says local authorities have stepped up pressure on her outlet since the onset of the pandemic.

Tatjana Lazarevic, editor-in-chief of the online news portal KosSev, was detained by police on the road from the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica/Mitrovice to nearby Zvecan, where she planned to go to the local health centre to investigate what she said were “multiple complaints” about its readiness to deal with cases of the novel coronavirus.

“It is very difficult to get official information,” Lazarevic, 50, told BIRN.

She was accused of violating a weekend curfew imposed to slow the spread of the disease, despite the fact that, under rules in Kosovo, journalists are exempt from the movement restrictions. Released after several hours without charge, Lazarevic said she suspects the episode was the latest attempt to intimidate KosSev by those who run northern Kosovo.

“I believe that there is a visible intention to create a profile picture of our media as an enemy of the state, an enemy of the people, that we are an enemy of the government,” Lazarevic told BIRN.

That state is Serbia, which continues to hold sway in northern Kosovo more than 20 years after the majority-Albanian territory broke away in war and 12 years since it declared independence with the backing of the West.

The public health system in northern Kosovo continues to function, de facto at least, as part of the Serbian health system, reflected in the fact that COVID-19 tests in the north are processed in the Serbian capital, Belgrade. Serbia does not recognise Kosovo as independent.

Pandemic brings more pressure

KosSev was formed in 2014 as an online news portal covering primarily northern Kosovo.

According to Lazarevic, who grew up in Mitrovica/Mitrovice, the site aims to provide properly-reported, impartial and objective information, not necessarily exposés. But in Kosovo, particularly the north, that is enough to invite trouble.

In its short life, KosSev and its small staff has faced cyber-attacks, threats and pressure on a regular basis. And it has recently become worse, Lazarevic said.

“This last phase of pressure has intensified since the start of the pandemic,” she told BIRN.

On Saturday, Lazarevic set out on foot for Zvecan, hoping to see “on the spot” the work of the Zvecan health clinic but also to see the extent of police security along the road during the curfew. Other people were also on the road.

A police car passed her three times. The third time, it slowed down and Lazarevic approached, believing the officers wanted to see her ID. But the car moved on.

“When I was completely alone,” she said, “a van of the [police] intervention unit suddenly appeared. Through an open window, they said, ‘Good afternoon, you have violated the medical prohibition on movement’.” Ten minutes later, Lazarevic entered the vehicle and was taken to the police station.

Lazarevic said she tried to explain to the officers that she was out conducting her work as a journalist and to show them her press credentials. She was released after a couple of hours without being given any further information.

The mainly Serb north of Kosovo is controlled by Srpska Lista, which answers to Serbia’s ruling Progressive Party.

While relations with the Kosovo government in Pristina are far from rosy, she said, the threat comes from the north. Lazarevic described them as “friendly visits” – from a torched KosSev car in 2015 to direct threats, hacks and a wall of silence among public institutions.

“Srpska Lista controls all the power or all the political life of Serbs in Kosovo,” she said.

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