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“Life in Kosovo” debates Press Freedom

01 05 2008  On Thursday, the televised debate on current affairs, “Life in Kosovo” hosted a discussion marking the International Day of Press Freedom.

During the debate, panellists spoke about how much freedom there is in Kosovo’s press.
How free are reporters to write what they like? Are there key issues that are not being investigated or are journalists being intimidated and how prudent are they in writing? Does business and politics influence media reporting?

The following panellists discussed these questions and more:

Augustin Palokaj - correspondent for Kosovo daily Koha Ditore and Croatian daily Jutarnji List;
Vjosa Dobruna - Chairperson of the Board of Radio Television, RTK and a participant in drafting Kosovo’s constitution in the area of human rights;
Lulzim Mjeku - former journalist and current political advisor to Deputy Prime Minister, Hajredin Kuqi;
Astrit Gashi - former economics reporter, and
Baton Haxhiu - Journalist, former director of daily Express and editor in-chief of Koha Ditore











Dobruna started the debate by looking at the legal aspects and said that even in the previous constitution, reporters’ rights were guaranteed.

“However,” she said “in all democracies, these rights have limitations.”

Admitting that in Kosovo, “there is freedom of press,” Dobruna admitted that in practice, it is another story.

Palokaj agreed that there is freedom of press but he said the problem was the freedom of thinking and how professional some media are.

“In Kosovo, there is more confusion than in other countries,” he said, adding that “for example, in Koha Ditore there is more space for expression than in Jutarnji List because Jutarnji List is more commercial, whereas Koha Ditore more political.”

“Business influence the media and since they want to develop further as commercial ventures, they [media] limit their own freedom,” Gashi maintained.

Haxhiu said there “there is a clash between media and businesses, because the media might often face the choice of “Publicity or reporting against.” Haxhiu said that “there is no business in Kosovo which is flawless in the same way that there is no media in Kosovo which is not related to business or politics.”

The panellists spoke about models for other media in the region, such as Albania where the media are so tightly related to business and politics.

Palokaj considered Haxhiu’s ideas a little “abstract, because of several instances where newspapers are blackmailed.”

Gashi admits there are cases of blackmailing but says “let’s not generalise. Media is a business after all, it is a business for information.”

Mjeku explained some of the reasons why he joined the government. “The reason was that I was displeased by the management of the media in which I worked.”

“Now my post is political advisor and not related to reporting,” he added.

However Palokaj said “there is no problem when a reporter turns into a politician but the problem is when they confuse the professions.”

“Here in Kosovo, most of the reports are positive for government,” he said, explaining that “the government produces those illusions and as such the media “consume them.”

Haxhiu observed that “in such cases, the blame belongs to editorial teams that send reporters to press conferences and they are not able to formulate good questions in order to make news out of a question.”

Dobruna said that “in Kosovo, there is a lot of protocol reporting, because there is a lot of censorship.”

Haxhiu agreed but said “investigative reporting is very costly.”

Palokaj maintained that “it is also a matter of amenity, as there is a lot of pressure from politics.”

“Media often report unimportant events,” Palokaj said.

Mjeku said “there is a lack of ‘public reporting’, which means that instead of reporting on a construction of a road, they should deal with the potholes in the roads.”

“Freedom of speech is also related to the responsibility towards citizens,” Dobruna said and asked “if citizens are manipulated by media, then who will protect those citizens?”

Palokaj illustrated examples from Russia saying that “even there, the freedom of press is guaranteed on paper but in reality is different.”

During the show, a letter from a viewer was read, which says “in my family, the father speaks, while we cannot say a word. I think our society is like my family.’

Haxhiu said it was untrue that in Kosovo, there is no freedom of speech, “because, there is a culture of freedom, and it is a product of the nineties when we opposed the regime of that epoch.”

The panellists agreed that “in Kosovo, we are not heading towards the Albania model.”

During the debate, three reports were broadcast by BIRN journalists, Jeta Abazi, Muhamet Hajrullahu and Betim Musliu.

The reports focused on how certain journalists were threatened during their work, assassinations of individual journalists, for whom the police never shed light on as well as how the police case on a wounded journalist was never completed in investigation and how many Kosovo journalists work without a contract.

Another report was about the rights of reporters being defended by the Association of Professional Journalists in Kosovo, AGPK. While many journalists criticised AGPK for not doing enough in defending the rights of journalists, AGPT representatives addressed critics accusing some journalists for serving politics.

The last report was about reporting and its influence on court cases. While many judges discard journalistic reports, the report revealed that many of the sources for the Anti-Corruption Agency were based on media reports.

Life in Kosovo is a co-production between Kosovo Public Television, RTK, and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN. The show is broadcast every Thursday, starting from 20:15