Arlind Sadiku a sports journalist reported today at the Association of Journalists of Kosovo that he was threatened by referee Mervan Bejtullahu.

According to Sadiku, Bejtullahu openly threatened him before the match Gjilan – Drita, saying to him that “We are in Gjilan, but if we were in Prishtina, I would have beaten you”.

For AJK, such language and behavior is unacceptable and makes it impossible for the journalist to report from the field.

AJK also calls upon the Football Federation of Kosovo – FFK, to take measures against referee Bejtullahu.

Safety and freedom of journalists during conflicts were discussed in the second part of the conference regarding World Press Freedom Day.

Part of this panel discussion was Lyudmila Makey – Journalist from Ukraine, President of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, Sergiy Tomilenko, Saranda Ramaj – Journalist at KTV, and Jul Kasapi a journalist from Albania. They shared their personal experiences while reporting from conflict zones.

Lyudmila Makey – a Ukrainian journalist who is currently living in Kosovo, said that since 24th of February her life has changed, but that she feels very grateful for the given opportunity to continue reporting from here.

“Since 24th of February, many Ukrainian journalists have been unemployed and homeless. I am very grateful for the help that Kosovo offered me, and I am really honored to represent the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine. I felt really good from the first second that I arrived in Prishtina, and that is because of the support that my fellow colleagues have been giving to me, and the readiness to hear my experience. However in one of my interviews, I was asked why they should trust Ukrainian journalists, and for this question, I didn’t have an answer till today, and the answer is that you have to trust us so that criminals won’t fabricate the truth”.

President of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, Sergiy Tomilenko, joined the conference via an online video call, expressing gratitude for the readiness of the Government of Kosovo to help Ukrainian journalists.

“It is a great honor for me to participate in this conference. Therefore, I would like to share with you briefly our priorities as a union. Of course, our first priority is the safety of journalists and the assistance of our colleagues who are reporting from the occupied areas of Ukraine. We are trying to evacuate journalists to safer areas of Ukraine. Since the beginning of the war, 24 media workers have been killed, four of whom were journalists”, said Tomilenko.

Journalists Saranda Ramaj and Jul Kasapi also shared their personal experiences of reporting from conflict areas.

Ramaj described her reporting from Ukraine as an extraordinary experience and stressed that her intention from the beginning was to report from Ukraine and not the border.

“I think it was more a matter of luck that I managed to get into the Country of Ukraine, due to the fact that we all know about the Kosovo-Ukraine relations and the inability of Kosovan journalists to report from this zone. Personally, I have always thought that I should try to enter Ukraine even though the circumstances are known and for me how problematic it was the lack of experience of reporting from conflict zones because I consider that I am still a young journalist and I have not had a similar previous experience. Therefore, I read more about how to report from these areas and not how to report from the border”.

Meanwhile, the journalist Kasapi, shared his experiences of reporting from Ukraine, reporting from Syria in 2019 from the camps where there were Albanians, and the experience of 2021, reporting from a “war zone” of organized crime in Latin America.

“Having in consideration the experience of reporting from Syria, I knew that we should be close to the army. It is well known how journalists “involve” themselves in a military force and then manage to report from there. In Ukraine, it was a bit more difficult, as we did not have the information that we would have to have a military accreditation, but as it happened to all other journalists, I also had a problem with the Ukrainian army because I filmed one of the entry checkpoints in the city and it was supposed to be one of the strategic points that should not be recorded, but this thing happened because we had no experience reporting in a state where martial law works and when I talk about martial law, it means that police of the country also have to ask the military forces on how they should act”.

Today’s conference was organized in cooperation and with the support of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo and the UN Kosovo Team.

Association of Journalists of Kosovo – AJK, in cooperation and with the support given of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, the United Nations Team in Kosovo, today organized a conference marking World Press Freedom Day.

Ambassador Michael Davenport – Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, through a video message, said that although Kosovo continues to record high results in the region of media pluralism, cases of threats and attacks on journalists continue to be present.

“We still see many cases of threats or attacks against journalists, including 11 incidents since the beginning of 2022. But this day above all is an opportunity to celebrate the work of courageous media professionals around the world, as well as the role of free and independent media in consolidating democracy and promoting a more transparent and open society. The OSCE Mission will continue to support this great effort here in Kosovo.”

The findings of the report “Kosovo Indicators on the level of Media Freedom and Journalists’ Safety 2021”, conducted by our researcher Getoarbë Mulliqi Bojaj, were presented at the first part of the conference.

The panel consisting of Yll Zekaj – Legal Expert, Abit Hoxha, National Expert, PCK’s Director – Imer Mushkolaj and AJK’s Executive Director Getoarbe Mulliqi Bojaj, discussed the reports findings, as well as its recommendations.

According to these findings, the situation of journalists continues to be serious, both of the pandemic and political changes, the number of attacks on journalists has increased, while the tendency to silence journalists through SLAPP (Strategic lawsuits against public participation) lawsuits is more prominent. While one of the recommendations of the report emphasized the need for journalists to report all cases of violation of their rights, the importance of RTK (Kosovo Public Broadcaster) financial independence, the independence of the selection of RTK and IMC (Independent Media Commission) boards, as and complete the KJC (Kosovo Judicial Council) Data Management System as soon as possible.

The denigrating language used against journalists and its impact on media trust, was discussed at the conference by the panel consisting of Doarsa Kica Xhelili – Chairwoman of the Committee on Public Administration, Local Government, Media and Regional Development of the Assembly of Kosovo; Leonard Kërquki – Director of the Gazeta Express, Rrezarta Delibashzade Krasniqi – Executive Director of NGO D4D and Granit Musliu – Member of the Independent Media Commission.

Currently at the conference is being discussed the safety and the freedom of journalists during reporting from conflict zones.

Agim Ademi – a journalist of the KOHA Group reported today at AJK a series of public insulting after an article he worte about the expenses of the mayor of Shtime, Qemajl Aliu.

Ademi has been called as the “servant of the Klan Pronto”, by the senior official of the Vetëvendosje Movement in Shtime, Halil Kurtishi.

AJK considers such language unacceptable and that directly endangers the safety of journalist Ademi.

AJK invites Mayor Aliu to distance himself from the pressures that are being put on the journalist after his reports, which are based on documents provided by the request for access to public documents.

The Association of Journalists of Kosovo organized today the last module of the Journalists Information Integrity Academy.

The participating journalists discussed the verification of videos, images, cyber security, and the fight against misinformation together with Blerton Abazi – Doctor of Cyber ​​Security at the same time professor at UBT College, and Adea Beqaj – Program Officer at NDI.

During this module was also discussed the preventive mechanisms, methods, and techniques that can be applied to verify information, as well as concrete examples of how social networks are used to spread misinformation.

In this meeting were also presented the findings of the assessment of the media environment in Kosovo – “Information Integrity in Kosovo: Assessment of the Political Economy of Disinformation”.

The Journalists Information Integrity Academy started in November 2021 with the support of the National Democratic Institute – NDI and USAID in Kosovo, through which a series of trainings and discussions were provided on information integrity, professionalism in journalism and the presence of misinformation, ethics during reporting with a particular focus on the portrayal of women in the media and the legal perspective of journalism and the media.

PODGORICA, 29.04.2022 – Niksic resident Vladimir Ratkovic was sentenced to three months in prison for persecuting the journalist of the Radio and Television of Montenegro, Ana Popović.

That verdict was passed by the judge of the Basic Court in Niksic, Mirko Kojovic.

Police previously arrested him on suspicion of repeatedly sending threatening and blackmailing messages to journalists via social media.

TVCG journalist Ana Popovic received threats from a certain Instagram account for several days. Popovic stated that after the protest that was held on January 21, she began to receive these messages. On that occasion, the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica formed a case and that case was qualified as a criminal offense for which it is prosecuted ex officio.