Pristina, March 26 -According to a report, when Albin Kurti (and not in Albania, because there are no elections there) is in the pre-election campaign, they come out with a report called by a « Platform Fact-Finder » of the Council of Europe for the Safety of Journalists, who presented the findings of the two-day workshop, according to which media freedom in Kosovo has declined compared to the last report. This report was prepared from data from the AGK, led by Xhemajl Rexha, who has been under fire in recent days, being considered the right hand of the opposition, because he and Flutura Kusari constantly target the leader and Prime Minister Albin Kurti. Every time Kurti is criticized by AGK, surprisingly, criticism also comes from Brussels (EFJ), forgetting to greet the Government, because in the last 6 years in Kosovo, no journalist has been killed, injured or seriously threatened!
Ricardo Gutierrez: “If you remain silent in the face of crimes, it means being an accomplice of murderers…” (Staying passive means being an accomplice of murderers)
Representatives of international organizations have expressed concern about the working climate of journalists in Kosovo and the pressure and political influence on them. They even criticized Prime Minister Albin Kurti for the lack of support for journalists. But, unfortunately, they are not concerned about the climate and Serbian and Russian propaganda in the Kosovo media, and the suspicions that they are paid by Serbia. These days, the Kosovar institutions (AKI and the Prosecution) are dealing with the media and journalists after the arrest of a « journalist », « analyst », who with the title of journalist was discovered and arrested as a spy for Serbia, and who had sympathy and cooperation with colleagues from the AJK and with most of the Kosovar media and televisions?!
However, the reactions of representatives of some organizations to the media in Kosovo continued. According to Maria Cheresheva, president of the European Journalists Association: “Unfortunately, this mission that comes from media freedom in Kosovo has declined since last time and there are many negative developments.”
“We had a meeting with Prime Minister Kurti and the most worrying conclusion is that the Prime Minister is not taking into account this hostile climate towards journalists and is trying to justify that if journalists are attacked, politicians are also attacked. I see this as a total lack of political will to improve the situation,” said Ricardo Gutierrez, from the Federation of European Journalists.
As for the media situation in Kosovo, especially the threats and murders of journalists, the number one man of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), in a recent interview given to the Swiss Albanian newspaper LeCanton27.ch, among other things, said:
“In Kosovo, we have 19 journalists killed and missing since the time of Milosevic until today, and unfortunately none of the perpetrators of these crimes has been arrested or convicted… So, staying passive, if you remain silent in the face of crimes, means being an accomplice of murderers…” (Staying passive means being an accomplice of murderers), says the Secretary of the European Federation of Journalists, Ricardo Gutierrez.
This report by the “Fact-Finding Platform” of the Council of Europe for the Safety of Journalists, does not include the case of the arrest of a “journalist” who was discovered as a spy for Serbia and was later arrested by the Kosovo police. Not only that, the AKI together with the Prosecutor’s Office, without the arrest of the « journalist » Fatmir Sheholli, has launched a broad investigation into the media that is being served with Fake News, hybrid war and Serbian-Russian propaganda in the Kosovo media. From this comes the conclusion that for the AGK and Gutierrez, Kurti, a leader with the most votes in the history of elections in Kosovo, seems more « dangerous » than this spy of Serbia, Sheholli?!
Let me remind you that the Kremlin, before the invasion of Ukraine, donated over 30 million euros to the media in the Balkans, including Kosovo and Albania
This is best justified by an American report, according to which 1,200 news items are published in Kosovo per day, of which only 400 are provided by local media, while 800 news items and other information come from abroad, especially from Slavic media: Sputnik, Tanjug, Informer, Pravda, etc., which do more propaganda than professional work to inform correctly.
For this purpose, Moscow, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, donated over 30 million euros for propaganda, to destabilize the region through Fake News and propaganda, as well as through Artificial Intelligence, by lynching national personalities (even journalists) through montages, making them « spies », and spies « patriots », as was the case with the « patriot » Sheholli wearing a KLA (UCK) hood?!
Hybrid war in Kosovo and the Balkans: Serbian media declares war on Kosovo with propaganda! Fake News and Artificial Intelligence are on the offensive in Kosovo and Albania, sponsored by Moscow and Belgrade to destabilize Kosovo.
Edi Rama, before hindering free expression by banning TikTok, would do well to ban Serbian and Russian propaganda in the media, as Germany did by banning Russia Today (Sputnik).
“The negative trend we are seeing is a poisonous narrative against journalists who ask legitimate questions and who are then called Serbia’s servants. We asked Kurti to make a public commitment to set an example for politicians and citizens to stop smearing journalists, but we did not receive it,” said James Wiseman from the International Press Institute.
Meanwhile, the Association of Public Broadcasters raised the issue of RTK’s budget, which was seen as a worrying phenomenon.
“Unfortunately, we see that the funding of public media since 2021 has decreased, where we had 11.2 million euros for them, and now it has dropped to 8.9 million euros, which is not at all sufficient for a public service media that has an obligation to inform all segments of society, and if you want to invest in children’s and educational programs, with such funding it is impossible to do this because all media in the region have a budget twice as large as RTK,” said Radka Betcheva from the EBU.
The conference called on the government to resume a dialogue with journalists’ associations and ensure that any new law, especially the one on the IMC, is in line with the highest European standards.