Two BIRN reporters were amongst numerous reporters from both Albanian and Serbian-language media stuck for hours in a café in the Serb-majority town of Zvecan on May 30, after the demonstrations ended up being violent. While NATO peacekeepers from KFOR and ethnic Serbs clashed in demonstrations versus the town’s recently chosen ethnic Albanian mayor, the reporters stayed for 3 hours inside the café. “The scenario inside the café was rather disconcerting; even when we were inside it, we were assaulted,” stated Shkodrane Dakaj, who together with cameraman Naser Fejza was amongst the reporters stuck in the café. She remembered that whenever they attempted to take images or videos, “even when we approached the windows of the café, we were assaulted by protesters”. “The windows of the café broke; they [protesters] tossed rocks at it when we approached the windows to movie. The scenario was extremely tough,” she described. The reporters handled to leave securely just after 3 hours, with the aid of the owner. “It was difficult to go inside the town structure or another location protected by the Kosovo Police, due to the fact that there was a KFOR cordon in front of the town structure that we needed to pass,” Dakaj stated, describing that KFOR “did decline the demand of the reporters to open the cordon and let them go through.” The Association of Journalists of Kosovo, AJK, informed BIRN that it had actually signed up 20 different attacks versus media teams given that Friday. Protesters tossed rocks and eggs at reporters, pressed them, required them to erase video, removed their video cameras and verbally attacked them. Cars of media teams were vandalized. KFOR and Kosovo cops seldom interfered, even when they existed throughout the attacks on reporters. Adelina Ahmeti, a BIRN reporter who has actually been on the ground in Leposavic, stated that “the primary issues are safe areas for reporters; there is no particular location for reporters to remain and report from”. “We are exposed from all fronts and the attacks can be extremely regular,” stated Ahmeti, who together with cameraman Jetmir Hoxha was pressed by masked protesters in Leposavic on May 30. No technique to secure reporters BIRN’s reporter, Shkodrane Dakaj, while reporting live from Zvecan. Picture: BIRN/Afrim Ejupi Kosovo reporters state reporting on the ground in the current demonstrations in Serb-majority towns in northern Kosovo has actually been hard since of the absence of a technique by the authorities. Albioneta Ademi, from the AJK, informed BIRN that “the authorities accountable for security in the north do not have a strategy or technique for the security of reporters reporting in tense scenarios, such as these”. She stated: “It is not the very first time that comparable scenarios are being duplicated in the north”, including that, nevertheless, “a record variety of cases has actually been taped in a couple of days”. Kosovo Serbs collected to oppose for the 5th day on Thursday in front of town structures in Zubin Potok, Leposavic, and Zvecan, getting in touch with the mayors chosen on April 23 in remarkable elections boycotted by ethnic Serbs not to utilize the structures and for the Kosovo Police to leave the location. The very first attack on media teams was signed up on the very first day of work of the mayors of the 3 towns, on May 26, which likewise was the very first day of the demonstrations. Ahmeti stated KFOR soldiers were extremely close when reporters were pressed by primarily masked protesters, who likewise verbally attacked the reporters, however did not try to interfere. This attack began 5 meters from the cordon of the KFOR soldiers and none came closer to the reporters, for security; there was no response from them,” she stated. BIRN’s reporter, Adelina Ahmeti, while reporting from Leposavic. Picture: BIRN/Jetmir Hoxha Ahmeti stated the cops “used an area at the police headquarters in Leposavic in case something occurs, however the station is 300 meters from where the media are placed.” “KFOR has actually not used any method for reporters, at least that’s what we collected throughout brief interactions with them”. In Zvecan, reporters do not have any direct interaction with the cops. Dakar stated: “Police authorities remain in the court in Zvecan however we do not have a main contact with them. Extremely seldom an authorities can be seen outside the court, behind the KFOR soldiers’ cordon”. According to Dakaj, the attacks on reporters in Zvecan have actually happened outside the KFOR cordon, and “there has actually been no response from the NATO objective or from the Kosovo Police.” BIRN asked KFOR whether it has a technique to secure reporters on the ground and the thinking behind soldiers not interfering in attacks however did not get a reaction by the time of publication. Ademi informed BIRN that the cops shared the exact same issues as the AJK on the risks reporters deal with on the ground, “however have actually not had any technique”. KFOR has actually not made any reaction to the AJK’s issues. Regional Serb Called ‘Traitor’ for Sheltering Journalists Mladen Perovic from Zvecan owns the café where reporters discovered shelter throughout the violent clashes in between protesters and KFOR soldiers on May 29. Perovic informed the media on May 31, that “when I came to around 10 am reporters were currently there, it was a great location to report and naturally when I opened, they all entered the café”. He opened the coffee shop at around 10 am, “when it was apparent the demonstration would last”, so individuals might refreshen themselves and utilize the restroom. After the demonstration intensified, he stated he “escaped from the café” to be safe “however after a long time, when the scenario stabilised, worried about my personal property, I returned to my bar where the reporters were”. They had actually been caught there for around 3 hours, from around 2 pm to 5 pm, as it had actually been the just safe location for them to be. Perovic assisted the reporters leave the café securely. He informed the media on Wednesday that he wished to close his café and had actually asked the protesters if they would enable them safe passage; they had actually reacted that “no one will touch them”, suggesting the Albanian-language reporters. Perovic stated he was later on pointed out as a “traitor” for having actually helped the reporters. “I do not understand what I have actually done to be called a traitor and be targeted,” he stated. Attacks, damaged windows and nationalist signs BIRN’s automobile was harmed on May 31, in Zvecan, by unidentified protesters. Image: BIRN/Shkodrane Dakaj Media teams have actually been both physically and verbally attacked by protesters. Jul Kasapi, from A2, the CNN branch in Albania, informed BIRN that on May 29 around a lots protesters collected around him and his group and required them “to erase video”. “Alongside the tense scenarios in between the protesters and KFOR produced in Zvecan (especially on Monday when 30 KFOR soldiers and around 50 protesters were hurt) and when our (reporters) lives were threatened, another issue … has actually been Serbian people hindering our live broadcasts,” Dakaj described, describing protesters getting in front of electronic cameras and revealing nationalist signs. In Leposavic, when BIRN reporter Ahmeti inquired about the attacks versus reporters, Zoran Todic, previous Leposavic mayor who has actually been working out with KFOR on behalf of the protesters, responded to: “I am sorry, individuals here are objecting quietly. The other day [on Wednesday] you concerned me to reveal the problem and we have actually talked. Individuals here are worried, as I see the issue, about being recorded by means of phones and not video camera. There isn’t any issue at all.” Protesters have actually relocated front of electronic cameras holding the letter “Z”, a sign of assistance for Russia’s intrusion of Ukraine, and attempted to avoid reporters from shooting either by moving completely in front of the electronic cameras, or, in the worst circumstances, by pressing the reporters and attempting to get their video cameras, or toss them on the ground. The majority of the Albanian-language media that have actually reported on the ground have actually had their cars harmed with damaged windows and blown tires, however likewise vandalized with nationalist signs. A few of the media homes with vandalised cars consist of Albania’s Top Channel, Euronews, A2 CNN, Panorama and Kosovo Albanian-language media RTV Dukagjini, Teve1, Koha, Syri, Periskopi, ATV, Kanal10. On May 30, protesters tossed an explosive gadget at the taxi the Radio Free Europe team were taking a trip with in Zubin Potok. There were no injuries. One day previously, the automobile of the media team of Albanian-language Kosovo broadcaster TeVe1 was set on fire. 2 BIRN cars were likewise harmed and vandalized. The tires of the cars and truck in which Ahmeti took a trip to Leposavic on May 29 were blown and vandalized with the “FOUR” sign, which represents the moto “Samo sloga Srbina spasava” (Only unity conserves the Serbs). The RKS sign, which means the Republic of Kosovo, was covered in the license plates. The windows of the automobile in which Dakaj and the team had actually taken a trip to Zvecan on May 31 were broken. BIRN has actually reported the cases to the Kosovo Police. It stays to be seen whether justice will be done. In May, a BIRN analysis of 62 occurrences including guns, knives, stones and physical attack because 2017 concluded that authorities and district attorneys in Kosovo are having a hard time to fix violent criminal offenses, especially when they happen in the primarily Serb north, where half of the cases, 31, happened in the 4 northern Serb-majority towns. Of these 31 cases, 13 were attacks versus reporters which happened in between 2018 and 2022. The court bought one month’s detention in one case and the authorities submitted a grievance in another. BIRN was unable to validate if any other suspects have actually been recognized or detained in the other cases.
Kosovo Journalists Left Unprotected in Violent Protests in North
