Despite Ramush Haradinaj's government having approved a new concept paper on improving communication with the media, Kosovo's journalists claim that old complaints about a lack of transparency remain.
More attacks and less freedom: that was the balance-sheet of 2017 for Kosovar journalists. “It’s nothing new to say that we are not satisfied with the Kosovo justice system, which is negligent in these cases”, explained Parim Olluri, the executive director of the online newspaper Insajderi, who was physically attacked this summer. “it is a case that if the prosecution and police got engaged in seriously, it could easily be solved. But in the circumstances of Kosovo, this negligence looks normal”, he told Kosovo 2.0.
A prominent Kosovar journalist, Parim Olluri, the executive director of the online newspaper “Insajderi”, was beaten by three people in front of his apartment in Pristina. The perpetrators and the motives of the attack remain unknown, while Kosovo Police has confirmed that the case is under investigation. The Association of Journalists of Kosovo (AJK) reacted by calling on state authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice as “such attacks damage in essence the freedom of expression and the media”.
For liberal democracy as we know it, the decline of professional journalism is certainly bad news — without it, vocal majorities dictate political decisions increasingly rooted in extreme, intolerant values.
