JOURNALISM IN KOSOVO

November 22, 1999
		The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented numerous attacks on members of the press in neighboring Serbia in recent months, as well as heavy fines levied against media outlets.

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In Kosovo, however, journalists may feel safer, said Chrystyna Lapychak, Europe program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists. "The issue of safety is maybe not as acute as it was during the war [in Yugoslavia] and immediately afterwards," Lapychak said. Practicing journalism is still difficult, though. Most returning journalists have found their offices burnt down. Editors such as Baton Haxhiu, winner of a 1999 International Press Freedom Award, have struggled to retain reporters who can earn more as translators, Lapychak said. "A lot of them are really starting from scratch. The financial question has been a big issue," she said. The current rebuilding is just one of the challenges journalists have faced in Kosovo since 1989, when Serbia began to chip away at the region's autonomy. Shortly afterward, all Kosovar-Albanian journalists were fired or resigned from state-run media. They responded by creating a variety of media outlets, some funded by the Kosovar-Albanian government-in-exile. This pluralistic media scene existed until the Serbian government cracked down on Albanian journalists last spring. Now, Lapychak said, the Kosovo Liberation Army has emerged as the power center and controls many media outlets. Koha Ditore editor Baton Haxhiu said the KLA wants "to pacify the language in the newspaper. If you are independent, they want to criticize you as a spy." Haxhiu and the publisher of Koha Ditore, Veton Surroi, were threatened after criticizing the KLA for monopolizing power in Kosovo and attacking minority groups. The KLA has denied responsibility for the attacks. "It appears [the KLA] are not very tolerant of other points of view," Lapychak said. Lapychak said the threats have resulted in journalists' self-censorship. Haxhiu has hope, though, that a free press will emerge in Kosovo. "The best time to create independent institutions is when you don't have government," he said.