SCOOP - A programme for investigative journalists in East and South-east Europe

With a troubled media sector, investigative reporting in Kosovo is going through a rough time

By Avni Zogiani, SCOOP Coordinator in Kosovo.
Courtesy of Scoop

Due to the economic crisis, media have become too dependent on income from the public sector in Kosovo.

The Government of Kosovo has shown the will to use public advertising to subdue the media, and seek to control it as well. The persistent lack of rule of law and confusion of competences and the accountability process has deteriorated norms not only in politics, but in the media sector as well. Journalistic integrity is becoming an exception while there are journalists who start by receiving direct donations from the government to working blatantly in advising positions for different departments.

Threats and intimidation

Investigative journalism is not very popular among most of the media today. Journalists who insist on doing investigative reports face not only threats and intimidation, but lack of support from their own media as well. Some newspapers that try to afford this adverse environment by doing some investigative reporting are exposed to direct pressure by public officers either through cutting of their funds for advertising or through pressure against journalists by using other media that are already under complete control of Government.

The intervention of the Government on the media market was open and direct. The Head of the Committee for Appointment of the Board of the strongest media in Kosovo, the public television – RTK, was the actual deputy-PM. The former director of RTK declared he was politically pressured to resign, though he himself was accused often by journalists for inserting political influence on public television.

Public media unchallenged

The fact that the public media remain by far the strongest in the Kosovo media market is in stark contrast to the developments in the region. Through a combination of different means, initially through donations and later on through combining public funding and the money made from advertising, public media became unchallenged by private ones. On the other hand, the lack of economic development has left the private media too dependent on the income from state advertising.  

The traditional low level of readership did not give print media much of an advantage either. It is estimated that something like 30,000 is the daily circulation of all dailies in Kosovo. Hence, public opinion is shaped overwhelmingly by national TV stations that are easily controlled in a time when lack of economic development gives little room for diversification of income.

Investigative journalism depends on the commitment of journalists more than on anything else. Some media that can still afford investigative journalism will face suffocation if no significant investments are made in the sector.

This article (2 March 2010) was replicated courtesy of the www.i-scoop.org website.

Note to the editor:

SCOOP was established by International Media Support in cooperation with FUJ to promote investigative journalism. Read more about SCOOP