Tag: Kosovo

The format of BIRN Kosovo’s electoral debates foresaw candidates talking about their programmes with a time-limit of two minutes. They used the time to identify the main problems they will seek to resolve and promising citizens very general solutions to these problems.

Some presented projects without explaining where they money will come from, with some promising to try to engage donors, while others said they would rely on the central government’s budget.

BIRN debates also featured very specific and personalized questions for each candidate, which were generated from BIRN and GAP Institute reports, the  www.kallxo.com platform and social media.

The candidates avoided answering some of these specific questions. The Justice Party candidate, when asked how he would manage to run a municipality when according to a written note by the principal of the school where he teachers English, he is not able even to control 40 pupils in his classroom, he seemed embarrassed. On the other side, Bali Muharremaj from AAK, who previously was Suhareka’s mayor for a year, would not answer why during his short mandate, seven teachers were employed without public competition or input.  

LDK’s candidate, Sali Asllanaj, did not answer when asked why he did not take any disciplinary measures against his cousin Ahmet Asllanaj, when the latter had struck the chief of procurement, Sefer Luzhnica.

Rame Vataj, four years ago, had promised to pave the road in the village of Savroe, which he didn’t do. When asked why, he answered that it was the obligation of the Ministry of Transport and that but that the national highway had “taken” that money.

In the end, the majority of the wives of the candidates said that they are the bosses in the house. They also talked about how close their husbands are to their children and what they prefer to eat.

Jeta Xharra, director of BIRN Kosovo, won first prize for TV journalism in an award given by UN women and the group Security and Gender Equality.

The award recognized Xharra for programme dedicated to Kosovo film director Blerta Zeqiri. This prize was given at the opening of a 16-day camapaign against gender-based violence, which concludes on December 10.

Rexhepi’s video report, ‘Collective Apartments in Magura Have No Access to Water’,  published on BIRN Kosovo’s online portal, GazetaJNK, explores how 22 families in a public apartment in Magura, a village in the Lipjan municipality, have not had running water suitable for drinking or bathing for the past seven years.

In the report, the Institute of Public Health tells GazetaJNK that the health of the villagers is at risk; however, the authorities have not taken any action to provide them with water.

In 2013, GazetaJNK began publishing video reports in addition to text-based articles.

The reports show real problems facing municipalities that are directly related to the local governments’ actions. Each report provides an overview of trends in the last years’ budget and the estimates for 2014-16.

These reports identify 46 problems in 142 different locations in seven municipalities. They also emphasize areas in which municipalities should focus, such as protection and maintenance. 

“BIRN has created a network of people who investigate on a daily basis and try to identify current problems of the respective municipalities. However, we start with the premise that no one is more familiar than the population with the problems of the municipality,” said Erlina Tafa, an investigative journalist at BIRN. Tafa also suggested that residents report problems at BIRN’s portal kallxo.com, so they can be discussed at municipal debates, which will be aired on “Life in Kosovo” in October.

In the upcoming days, GAP and BIRN will publish similar reports for Prizren, Mitrovica, Peja, Ferizaj and Prishtina. These reports will be delivered personally to all the mayoral candidates in Kosovo.

BIRN Kosovo played a role in the establishment of Prosperiteti, which will be streamed online, by organising meetings and trainings.

Lendrit Qeli, who runs Prosperiteti and attended BIRN’s training, said the station will benefit the community greatly.

“There will be topics to raise the community awareness in the municipality and at the same time we will do promotions that until now did not have the opportunity to get promoted through other mediums,” Qeli said.

Prosperiteti received donations from the Gjakova municipality and the Italian organisations IPSIA and CELIM MILAN.

Considering the difficulties that journalists face because of the absence of the law of protecting the sources of information, BIRN together with ARTICLE 19, a London-based human rights organization, drafted a law that will serve as a protection for these sources.

The draft law was sent to the parliament and BIRN publically asked MPs to adopt the law since it is crucial for freedom of speech and expression.

Report, titled “The State is 30 Per Cent Accessible to Citizens,” is the culmination of a year-and-a-half of monitoring of public institutions to examine the implementation of the law.

Concluding that government institutions respond to only 30 per cent of official requests, the report found that the Prime Minister Office is the least transparent institution. 

Gresa Musliu, a BIRN Kosovo researcher, presenting the report to Kosovo’s media, noted that only 100 of 300 official requests to government institutions received positive responses. In the case of 100 requests to the prime minister’s office, fewer than 30 were responded to.

In one case, when BIRN requested access to spending reports from official trips, the Prime Minister’s office refused on the grounds that the reports could reveal diets, and thus expose confidential health information. As a result, BIRN Kosovo has sued the Prime Minister’s office.

Musliu singled out the Agency for Protection of Personal Data, whose opinion was used to justify the Prime Minister’s Office decision not to disclose the trip reports, as contributing to a lack of government transparency.

“This agency presents risk for transparency, because since the establishment it is allegedly finding reasons to justify the lack of transparence of the legal institutions,” Musliu said.

The least transparent institutions include: the municipality of Prishtina, Kosovo Cadastral Agency, Prosecutorial Council and Judicial Council of Kosovo. While, among the transparent institutions are: Business Registration Agency in Kosovo, the Office of the General Auditor, and the Anti-Corruption Agency.

This report contains an exact template for writing official requests and also specific examples of requests sent by BIRN to the public institutions. Moreover, it provides recommendations for the public institutions and the citizens who want to have access to public documents.

Please see the full report here: PDF