10 minutes agoPower is preparing Director Shkumbin Ahmetdzhekaj's dismissal to place Ad Krasta at the helm of RTK '%s'
Periskopi(2 years ago)
(2 years ago)What he had done in January last year, naming Vetevendosje activist Riley Grovall at the top of several RTK channels, the board of this power-capped television, is involved in another operation, the one for the collapse of current Kosovo Radio Television director Shkumbin Ahmetxejaj. The newspaper learns that [...]
The paper teaches that Adrian Krastta's conduct as temporary television director is being targeted. The RTK board had named Adi Krastta as deputy director general at Kosovo Radio Television early last year.
Vetevendosje officials are taught that he already has” sleeves to complete this task by contacting each member of the RTK Board.
This action and the eventual dismissal of Ahmetjekaj will thus cause RTK to trouble the EBU organisation, where television, not a member, but a special status. Early in RTK, in demand signed by Ahmetxhekaj has demanded that Kosovo be allowed to participate in the European Eurovision song contest 2025.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) had praised the positive step for the public broadcaster's choice of Shkumbin Ahmetxhekaj general director of RTK in 2022. AhmetYekaj had come to this position because for five months he had been a task worker for the director general of RTK, Kosovo's public broadcaster. He was elected by eight votes for and one abstention.
The European Centre for Freedom of Media and Press, to which they have sent a letter to the head of the RTK Board, Besnik Boletini, through which they express concerns about the growing crisis within the public broadcaster and about the pressure being put on to evacuate General Director Shkumbin Ahmetxekaj, writes the Express newspaper.
As reported in this letter by the ECMPF, former European Parliament rapporteur Violet Von Croamon, in reporting on January 15th had cited efforts to replace Ahmetzhekaj with a pro-government individual.
We write to remind you that any political intervention in public broadcaster management would be an extremely anti-democratic act, and your role as board members is to resist all these pressures”, it says on paper.
In addition, the letter notes that Ahmetzhekaj was named Director in 2022 through an open procedure and has led reforms within RTK.
The appointment process was considered by the European Union and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe as based on merit and was welcomed by international organisations and foreign embassies present in Kosovo”, the letter stresses.
It is also cited that despite the lack of a model of funding and the serious state of funding, public broadcaster management has improved markedly, which is also highlighted by the National Audition Office.
The ECMPF says such success has been achieved thanks to joint work between the board and the Director General.
“RTK does not have a stable funding model and is currently at the lowest funding point in a decade, its financial management has improved significantly as highlighted in your recent response and by the National Audition Office. Moreover, according to one survey, the public broadcaster is currently the second most reliable television station in Kosovo. Such success is the result of the joint work of the RTK board and the director general, showing that Kosovo broadcaster is fulfilling his mission to serve the public”, the letter follows.
This international organisation has called on the head of the RTK Board to act carefully, so RTK can serve the public rather than political interests.
We beg you to carefully consider your future decisions and make sure that the public broadcaster continues to serve the public rather than political interests. Media freedom, in general, and continued reforms in the public broadcaster in particular, will be seriously damaged and undermined if politically motivated changes in public broadcaster management are successful”, is highlighted on paper.
Finally, the dismissal of directors for motivated political reasons threatens media freedom as the value of the Council of Europe, The EU and EBU.
“We have seen from our monitoring of threats across Europe how easy it is for governments to undermine the independence of public broadcasters and how serious the consequences of such politicisation for society as a whole. The dismissal of public broadcasters' directors for politically motivated reasons threatens media freedom, which are fundamental values of the Council of Europe, the European Union and the European Union of Broadcasters”, documents.
