About a week ago, a fact-finding mission from partner organizations of the Council of Europe Platform for the Safety of Journalists, and several other organizations, stayed in Kosovo. As previously announced, the mission's goal is to assess challenges to media freedom in Kosovo.
The mission came, conducted its research, and presented its results. Their main finding was that in Kosovo ''there is a decline in media freedom'', and there is a ''deterioration of the situation''.
Ricardo Gutierrez from the European Federation of Journalists expressed concern about this situation. The latter even emphasized his main concern, which was the fact that Kurti "does not recognize the hostile climate" towards the media, and even the head of government "justifies it".
“We met with the Prime Minister yesterday for almost two hours, the Prime Minister and some of the officials in his office. And from my perspective, the most disturbing conclusion from this meeting is the fact that the Prime Minister is not recognizing this hostile climate; on the contrary, he is justifying it. Prime Minister Albin Kurti was asked to condemn public statements against journalists, but he refused. “You know, ‘if journalists are attacked, maybe this happens because sometimes politicians are attacked too’. So it’s like justifying this kind of thing and he clearly refused to condemn, because we asked him, we asked him to condemn every public statement against journalists. He refused to do that and from my perspective, this is one of the most disturbing conclusions of this meeting. Why do I say this? Because I see this as a total lack of political will to improve the situation. "We asked him several times about his proposals to improve the situation, nothing came from his side, despite the official statement he published after the meeting saying that he was ready to cooperate with us and consider the proposals. I can tell you that during the meeting there was no proposal to improve the situation," Gutierrez declared days ago.
Gutierrez's concern was echoed by James Wiseman from the International Press Institute. He also stressed that they are concerned about the media situation in Kosovo, adding that their concern is further heightened by "a lack of willingness" on the part of the government "to acknowledge the concerns that journalists have."
"This is my second mission here in Kosovo in just over two years. As you heard from my colleagues, we are truly concerned about the direction that media freedom is taking in Kosovo. What has struck us most over the past two days is the level of mistrust and polarization between the government and the media community. During our meeting with the Prime Minister yesterday, we noted a lack of willingness to acknowledge the legitimate concerns that journalists have about their safety and the regulatory environment. Instead of engaging with the substance of our criticisms, we saw a tendency to dismiss them as politically motivated," he stated.
That international concerns have fallen on deaf ears of the government was also seen today. After Kurti, about a week after the meetings with the aforementioned, attacked the media from the Parliament podium.
In his speech, Kurti spoke about 'financing with bags of money', and about manipulations that the ''enemies'' of the state carry out in Kosovo through ''their agents'' within the country.
Following Kurti's statements, there were immediate reactions in the Assembly. The first to speak was the leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj, who said that Kurti himself is the one who "spends the most money feeding the hounds who insult Albanians."
Another reaction came from the Democratic League of Kosovo MP, Armend Zemaj. The latter said that Kurti is on the "black list for interference in the independence" of the media, where Kurti has been placed by "Reporters Without Borders, embassies, credible international organizations".
Otherwise, Kurti today also announced that the law on the independent media council will be sent to the Parliament, which, according to Kurti, ''is not to control the media''. /GazetaExpress/
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