Raise concerns about media freedom in Kosovo, “is constantly vulnerable to”

The Ombudsman's institution organised on Tuesday a roundtable with the subject “media license and the security of journalists”, in which serious concerns arose over pressure against journalists and Kosovo's fall in the organisation's “Reporters without Borders” index.

Ombudsman Naim Qeyaj said that media freedom and expression are two fundamental pillars of democracy and human rights, while praising that the current situation poses serious challenges.

“The right and freedom of the media enter the human rights catalog and freedom of expression are two foundations of democracy and respect for human rights. The role of the House of Peoples' Institution on this level is very important. The goal of the meeting is to discuss the situation, the situation and challenges threatening media and journalists' freedom. The report, without Borders, listed Kosovo below, was problematic with the measurement indicators, and if we analyze these indicators, it turns out that the most critical level of the handled context is political interference in the media and the security of journalists”, said Celaj.

He added that the approach of government and public institutions to such reporting has been an effort to relativise reality.

The government and the majority of the public generally treated the report rationally, as a tendency to misrepresent Kosovo, addressing those who reported to this organization, in some way by minimizing and relating everything the report showed. The decline in the index shows increasing political pressure on media and attacks on journalists. This is an alarm and measures must be taken to ensure the consistency of the foundation of democracy”, said Celaj, reports Online Economy, broadcast Periscope.

Even the head of the Kosovo Journalists' Association (AGK), Xhemajl Rexha, praised the situation as heavy, noting that attacks on the media are ongoing.

What's clear about what happened after this report was published is that media freedom in Kosovo continues to be constantly attacked. Actors are the same and that don't change. They are mainly the power and the largest party in the country. The three main reasons why Kosovo is listed badly are: the law for the KPM, the intervention in RTK and the deignive campaigns”, Rexha said.

Media rights lawyer Butterfly Kusari named 3 May, World Press Freedom Day, as a date which in democratic countries is marked with dedication for improvement, while in Kosovo, according to her, the opposite is happening.

The VV's in power, we celebrate 3 May is being reviled, insulted, even attacked online denigrated. Rather than having a commitment to improvement, we had the opposite: efforts to shift our attention elsewhere. Media freedom is constantly vulnerable in Kosovo. The judicial system is the biggest advocate of press freedom, media and journalists”, she said. /Periscope