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RTK, Kosovo
12 04 2006 On 12 April, BIRN Kosovo broadcasted an investigative report about the irregularity
of food being sold in Kosovo markets and shops.
The whole programme was filmed in the field, with hidden cameras that
revealed that food served to Kosovo consumers is often out of date and
is kept outside the shops, under the sun.
The investigation by RTK journalist Lindita Azizi showed milk, cheese,
eggs and salami lying out on the streets under the sun. Additionally,
the investigative report showed chicken meat being defrosted and then
packaged again and frozen for sale.
More than 20 people were interviewed
for this programme, including shop owners, consumers, food inspectors
and border control officials.
The highlight of the programme included a shop owner admitting the ways
in which food past its sell-by date is being sold in Kosovo shops. "We
have new stickers which we stamp on top of the original expiry date,"
the shopkeeper said. "Then we stamp them with new expiry dates and
put them in the shelves for sale."
Bahtir Gashi, a food inspector for Pristina municipality, said, "There
used to be three inspectors for Pristina - before the war, when the town
had 250,000 people. Now we have more than half a million inhabitants and
two inspectors for the whole municipality. We can't police each and every
shop!"
The other officials interviewed for the programme were Flamur Kadriu,
head of public veterinary health; Besfort Gunga, head of veterinary border
inspection and Naser Ramadani, epidemiologist.
At the beginning of 2010 BIRN network published Digging Deeper - A Guide for Investigative Journalists in the Balkans, written in cooperation with Sheila Coronel, Director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism and professor of professional practice at Columbia University, New York.
