PRISTINA, 01.07.2021 – The Association of Journalists of Kosovo – AJK, today has published the report “Indicators On The Level Of Media Freedom And Journalists’ Safety 2020”
The report was conducted by the researcher Getoarbë Mulliqi Bojaj and focuses on three indicators; the legal framework, the position of the journalists in the newsroom, and the safety of journalists.
The Chairwoman of the Board of the Association of Journalists of Kosovo – AJK, Gentiana Begolli Pustina, said that the climate of doing journalism in Kosovo is much more severe than is reflected in statistics.
“The climate of journalism is getting worse each year. For each year that passes the cases of attacks on journalists are increasing. It is disturbing that journalists, cameramen and photojournalists are reluctant to talk about censorship, self-censorship and the violation of their rights by the media where they work. This suggests that the climate of journalism is much harsher than the statistics we have.”
While, the researcher of the report, Getoarbë Mulliqi Bojaj, presented in front of the audience the findings of the report.
“Taking into account the circumstances during 2020, especially after March, there is a noticeable tendency for attacks and threats against journalists. In 2018 we had 17 cases of attacks, in 2019, 21 cases were reported, while during 2020, 24 cases were registered. Unfortunately, verbal threats and lynchings by public officials and politicians have increased throughout 2020. While the media legislation in Kosovo is very good, compared to countries with advanced democracies, but the problem according to legal experts and journalists themselves is its implementation”.
Part of the discussion panel were also Imer Mushkolaj – Executive Director at the PCK, Yll Zekaj – Legal Expert, and Dren Gërguri – Lecturer at the University of Prishtina.
The Executive Director of the Press Council of Kosovo – PCK, Imer Mushkolaj, described the self-censorship of journalists as extremely worrying.
“Two issues that are specific to me, and which show the way that the journalists work, is what the report reveals regarding the self-censorship of journalists because based on focus groups and interviews that have taken place with journalists, it turns out that journalists don’t have any direct pressure from managers within the media where they work, but they have a kind of understandable self-censorship. So journalists are aware on topics they should not report for, they know which subjects, whether business or political, should not report for because in this way the interest of the owner / media is violated. This is an extremely big problem because here we are talking about indirect pressure but to say in a more ‘elegant’ way, it becomes clear to journalists what they should not report.”
The legal expert, Yll Zekaj, stressed that the findings of the report should be a guide for the country’s institutions and all the actors mentioned in the report.
“The findings of this report should be a guide for those who find themselves within this report and for Kosovo institutions, especially for media leaders based on the findings that have emerged from this report. When such a statement about the legal basis is made by the journalists themselves, I have nothing else to say but to confirm that we have a good legal basis on paper that provides protection for both journalists and the ones that criticize the journalists, but which is completely different in practice, we have problems of implementation in practice ”.
Dren Gërguri – Lecturer at the University of Prishtina praised the work of AJK in accurately identifying the climate of journalism in Kosovo.
“We are aware of the importance of the work of a journalist. If the society has had fluctuations about the importance of the profession of journalists for a society before, I believe the pandemic has shown us how important journalism is and how important accurate and precise information is because in the pandemic when everyone wanted to have precise information, we all turned our eyes to journalists. They informed us and we turned our eyes towards people who have a salary that is not enough to make a living in this country.”
You can read the full report on this link.