Kosovo

PEN International, in collaboration with various Balkan PEN centres, publishes a report examining the many challenges faced by independent writers and journalists in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia.

The court injunction stays the revocation of the business licence of ‘Klan Kosova’, an important legal ruling which blocks an effort by the government to shut down the country’s largest private television channel.

Tensions in the region have escalated after municipal elections – boycotted by the Serbian minority – brought to power ethnically Albanian mayors in three towns.

Press freedom delegation to Kosovo finds that significant progress has been made in strengthening media freedom. However, journalists still find themselves the targets of SLAPPs and smear campaigns that could increase the risk to their safety.

Journalists covering riots that broke out in Mitrovica following a police anti-smuggling operation were chased, assaulted and abused by rioters; some had Molotov cocktails or explosive devices thrown at them.

This is the second time in four months that a car belonging to the ‘Reporteri.net’ journalist has been targeted by unidentified individuals.

Reporters Without Borders condemns a bomb attack on the home of Mentor Shala, the head of public radio and TV broadcaster RTK – the second attack of this kind targeting RTK in less than a week.

RSF condemns a grenade attack on Kosovo’s state-owned radio and TV broadcaster RTK in Pristina and calls on the authorities to bring those responsible to justice.

Serbeze Haxhiaj, a journalist with public radio Radio Kosova, has received threats from individuals who identified themselves as former superior officers in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) / Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës (UCK).

Local reports said that a man entered the newsroom of the headquarters of private broadcaster Klan Kosova in Pristina and repeatedly stabbed Milot Hasimja in the head and neck as the journalist sat at his desk.

Visar Duriqi, a Kosovar journalist specializing in political Islam, has received many death threats, including threats of beheading, since a radical group accused him of apostasy.

The government of Kosovo is currently preparing a new surveillance law that will turn Kosovar network operators and service providers into de facto agents of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency, granting authorities real-time access to communications data without proper oversight or consideration for the right to privacy.

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), condemns pressure directed against journalists in Kosovo amid last week’s elections. A crew from Silovo-based Radio Television Puls said a security guard at a municipal building in a village near Gjilan/Gnjilane, in eastern Kosovo, attacked them on Dec. 1 when […]

Mufail Limani, editor-in-chief of Radio Television Kosovo, had the entrance to his house set on fire on 1 May. The attack follows numerous press freedom violations in Kosovo in recent days.