Tag: Kosovo

The main goal of the talk was to explain the on-going work of the “Krypometer’’, a tool for measuring factual errors launched last December, which has been used so far to measure more than 40 official statements from all fields of public life in Kosovo.

The lecture opened with a welcome by the host professor Zija Rexhepi and united two of the best-known faces of kallxo.com, Faik Ispahiu, executive producer of kallxo.com and Kreshnik Gashi, the author of DnK.

Ispahiu stated the importance of fact checking, referring to it as a new era of professional journalism.

Proving the truth, even though it is not easy to do, respects people’s desire for freedom and their right to know the truth. If news is fact-checked, it automatically has more quality and credibility, he said, explaining also how the Krypometer divides its subject matter into five categories of lies, which are explained on Prishtina Insight website.

Gashi explained how the idea behind this platform took more than a year to complete, the difficulties that were encountered while training the editors and how the process of measuring a lie is done.

According to Gashi, the platform has already succeeded in making those who issue official statements think twice about what they are going to say.

The conference gathered 40 participants, including journalists, editors, journalism academics, media-related institutions and so forth. It revealed that there is readiness from all communities to collaborate and cooperatively report on issues of common interest.

As a result of several tasks that took place before the final conference, reflections were gathered on what had been done to improve cooperation between journalists from different communities in Kosovo. For instance, all journalists representing the partners of the project, such as BIRN Kosovo, the Press Council, Mreza TV, the Association of Journalists in Kosovo, and other journalists from Serbian-majority municipalities were divided into groups to write about common issues concerning different regions in Kosovo.

The results were achieved as part of the activities that were attended by journalists from the different communities, which made it easier for them to commonly discuss what to work on. As the project was supported by the European Union Special Representative, they visited EU-funded projects and factories being implemented in the north in order to get a better idea of how the EU contributed to improving the lives of people in certain areas of Kosovo.

The targets of the project were productive in a way that they identified the issues that the journalists from Kosovo-Albanian and Kosovo-Serbian regions face. In the future, the outcomes of this project will serve as a fruitful means to pay attention to the lessons learned, and realize that only through strengthened teamwork can the media landscape in Kosovo be improved.

This activity was an initiative to concretely identify the issues between journalists from Kosovo Albanian and Kosovo Serb communities. This debate was named “Cooperation between journalists from the South and North on issues and problems concerning the communities,” and resulted in potential ideas about future solutions for the media landscape around Kosovo. For instance, this debate revealed that Kosovo Serb journalists coming from Gjilan were not receiving adequate information from the municipality. As a result, the participants kindly showed willingness to improve this level of cooperation with their colleagues from other communities.

Another aspect of this project was to organize a retreat in another region of Kosovo, which took place in the municipalities of Prizren and Gracanica. This retreat took place on January 27th and 28th and it gathered 30 journalists. The retreat lasted for two days, with tasks such as visiting different significant parts of the municipalities and exchanging ideas about cultural perspectives on how to contribute to better integration and collaboration between different communities in Kosovo.

The main task of this retreat was to identify the topics that the journalists could collaborate on. As a result, the group was divided into three teams after being combined from different backgrounds. The issues identified to write about included accommodation of returnees in Roma Mahalla (Mitrovica South), pollution of the Ibar River, the treatment of stray dogs in different municipalities, social and medical care for elderly people from non-majority municipalities, and joint Kosovo-Albanian and Kosovo-Serbian markets. Journalists who were a part of this discussion represented Albanian, Serb, Bosnjak and Roma communities.

These two activities contributed to teambuilding between journalists from various communities, to be of future use for tackling issues of common interest and reaching the targets of the project as a whole.

Following the objectives of the “Strengthening multi-ethnic dialogue among journalists in Kosovo” project—whose main goal was to strengthen the collaboration between Kosovo journalists from a variety of backgrounds—several activities were organized in order to identify the needs and come up with solutions, including this debate.

The discussion “Enhancing inter-ethnic dialogue and collaboration between journalists in Kosovo” was headed to tackle issues that participants found necessary to find solutions for. It would further lead to enhancing cooperation and understanding between Serb and Albanian communities in Kosovo, so that any responsible association would better represent the voice of all journalism groups in Kosovo, regardless of background. The debate thoroughly included talks on improving the cooperation between journalists so that any activity to take place in the future would receive equal contribution from all sides.

This activity was part of a collaborative project between BIRN Kosovo, the Association of Journalists of Kosovo, the Press Council and Mreza TV, a Serbian language media outlet in Kosovo. Representatives from these partners were also invited to the debate, along with representatives from EUSR, the Kosovo Media Commission, and so forth.

This debate brought positive results to the objectives of the project, as it helped identify future proposed activities to be implemented, and led to close cooperation between Kosovo Albanian and Kosovo Serb communities. Despite the identification of issues that could hinder the implementation of the project, such as language barriers and permission of journalists from their superiors to take part in certain endeavors, the activities revealed that there is a strong willingness from journalists from both sides to socialize and exchange ideas for a good cause.

On Tuesday, the British diplomat opened the discussion with students from the Faculty of Law – future judges, prosecutors and lawyers – with a single, straight-forward proposal: “Do not become corrupted.”

For the last two years, O’Connell served as an ambassador of Great Britain to a country that is listed by international reports as one of the most corrupt, especially regarding the judicial system.

“Kosovo needs a new generation of lawyers. It is disturbing to witness the level of corruption operating in Kosovo. It is almost unbelievable,” he said. “Do not place a price on yourself with which you can be bought.”

O’Connell also commented on the roles and power of foreign diplomats, including himself, saying it was limited in terms of reforming the current political class.

“I haven’t done anything to remove Kosovo’s corrupted class. I am not responsible for deciding who will be a prime minister or an MP in Kosovo. You, on the other hand, have the power to vote. You have more power than I do here. I don’t have a drop of power, I can only speak for Great Britain,” said the British ambassador.

In many court cases, he recalled, the outcome favoured the political class, such as in the case of Sami Lushtaku, the mayor of Skenderaj.

“Let’s discuss the case of Mr. Lushtaku, who unfortunately was released from the correctional facility and did not stay in prison. He was allowed to go to the hospital, to stay there for a bit and then go home. When we talk about principles it is easy, but when we discuss specific cases, it’s not always the same,” he said.

“Judges need to act according to the law, impartial to the very end,” added O’Connell.

Although nepotism is an apparent problem in Kosovo, he also added that it does not mean that Kosovars are more susceptible to corruption than others.

“The problem lies with the system that was created shortly after the war. As such, Kosovo has not fought for its independence to only then be ruled by others,” he said.