NYT journalist relates reporting challenges the day Kosovo declared independence

From Prague where he was established as a New York Times correspondent for Eastern and Central Europe, Dan Bilifsky left for Pristina in February 2008.

Worried if he would arrive in time to report, among the crowd of people, Bilifsky had been fortunate to have met an Albanian who had come from New York, who had helped him reach the capital, KTV reports.

It's been a day of great excitement, excitement. I remember people on the street with Albanian flags on their hands, screaming from their cars, after all the Kosovo Albanians suffered during the war, it was a feeling of accomplishment, of fulfilling national destiny. I felt that I was witnessing the history story, and really, my story of Kosovo's independence came out on the front page of the New York Times, with that big yellow sign, and this was really touching to see”, said Dan Bilifsky, a journalist in New York Times.

The journalist, who is known for many investigative writings in London and New York, has confessed to KTV the challenge of covering the event he considers an important part of his career.

The biggest challenge to report Kosovo's independence was that at the time it seemed that the northern part could be divided Kosovo, while I wanted the New York Times to also cover developments in Belgrade, as there were protests and reactions from Serbian nationalists against independence and it seemed that the American Embassy would be attacked, so it was difficult to report from both countries at the same time”, Bilifsky said.

Citing that he is emotionally related to Kosovo, he says he would like to return to Pristina.

Attifsky also, during the time he was a correspondent for the Balkans, in 2010 he investigated the whereabouts of Radko Mladic, who was arrested a year later.

After 28 years, he has returned to his hometown of Montreal, Canada, to continue his work as New York Times correspondent. /Time.net