Topic:
Media in Kosovo
Authors:
Milivoje Mihajlovic
The press in Kosovo is characterized by a clean split between Serb and
Albanian run media.
Practically no media is capable of adequately covering the whole
region, not only because of the language barrier, but largely as a
result of the clear division between the two ethnic communities.
During the past 10 years, media have become mirrors, even initiators,
of the ethnic, religious, historical, cultural, and political
divisions in Kosovo and Metohija.
Today, this Serbian province has more than 50 Albanian-language daily
newspapers, periodicals and magazines. The Koha Ditore and Bujku
dailies and Zeri weekly have the largest circulations. The newspaper
Tan is published in Turkish, while Radio Television Pristina also
broadcasts programs in Turkish.
Of Serbian media in Kosovo, Pristina Radio Television and the daily
Jedinstvo should be noted.
Media have become the main instrument used to widen ethnic and
political rifts in Kosovo and one of the generators of the current
crisis.
The Albanian language press is not controlled by the state and has
since 1990 basically served to further the illusion of the existence
of a so-called Republic of Kosovo. Therefore, the political goal of
the Albanian press is, essentially, to transform this nonexistent
state into a reality.
The Kosovo Albanian press is to a large extent controlled by their
underground state or political groups that are attempting to create an
Albanian state in Kosovo using a variety of methods.
Kosovo Albanian daily newspapers regularly refer to Serbia as a
foreign occupational force, present Ibrahim Rugova as "president of
Kosovo," neglect to report on terrorist attacks and killings of police
officers, publish "warrants" for Albanians who do not back separatism
and are in any way loyal to the Serbian state and its reality. They
publish proclamations in which family members renounce such people,
but refuse to print obituaries when such Albanians die in terrorist
attacks.
Each day for the past several years, they have been printing weather
forecast on a map of an imaginary Greater Albania.
In recent months, a portions of the periodicals (Kombi, Gazet Shqiptare
and other) are propagating terrorism by extremist factions and urging
armed insurrection in Kosovo. Atrocities committed by terrorists are
attributed to police and the perpetrators of terrorist attacks are
hailed as heroes. The Kosovo Albanian press has come closest to
lighting the fuse of "the Balkan powder keg."
What political goal justifies spreading hate with the possible
catastrophic consequences|
One the other hand, the Serb population mostly relies on newspapers
published in Belgrade and the political views of the ruling and
opposition parties in the capital.
There is not a single Serb media at the local level that is not
controlled by the state. Basically, this attests to a lack of public
opinion and stand on the media on the part of the local populace. As a
result, Kosovo's Slavic population is often drawn into political
clashes at the Yugoslav and Serbian levels, taking the problems of
their own region out of focus.
Because of the great importance of Kosovo and Metohija for every
political party in Serbia and the government, it is difficult to
expect this situation to change in the near future.
The extreme division along ethnic lines has caused Serbian-language
press to dedicate very little space to the problems of "ordinary
people" from the Kosovo Albanian community.
The main goal of media in Kosovo and Metohija should be peace and
finding a way to achieve it, while, at the same time, avoiding
violence, death and hate.
The author is Editor-in-Chief of the Pristina Media Center
Mufail Limani
"Last night during a search of his home for illegal weapons, NN
(unidentified person) was beaten by the police in front of his family,
who kept their heads and did not reply to this provocation." This is a
typical example of a news item that could be found in a Kosovo
Albanian newspaper, until the beginning of this year. From this
example, which may seem hillarious at first glance, one can sense the
tone of the new Kosovo style of reporting, where journalists
constantly face the dilemma: the choice between profession and
mission. It is obvious that the professional part in the news item is
that someone was beaten in front of family members, while the mission
is the obvious advocacy of keeping one's head and not replying to
provocations.
It is not difficult to understand why in time the "mission" has become
so important in Kosovo journalism. To report events in a cold tone,
just facts, and maybe too much logic in the commentaries, seemed to be
too dangerous for the reality...The reality of Kosovo, daily
non-selective repression, murders, beatings and ignorance of the
elementary human rights of the Albanians, during the domination of the
mission, created the general impression that someone would really come
- a Superman (U.S. ambassador Miles), and put a quick stop to
everything.
"That is the only way to preserve peace and life in Kosovo," say those
who still today see journalism in Kosovo as a mission; a good example
of such journalism is the Bujku daily, which by the way, has been very
militant towards all Albanians who claimed that lies are not the cure
for everything that ails us.
The lie was the real victim in Kosovo
In the meantime, a quiet revolution has come to pass among the Kosovo
media - satellite dishes! People bought the dishes to watch the two
hour broadcast by TV Albania via satellite. But, the half hour news
cast prepared by journalists from Kosovo, that was aired in those two
hours, was in no way revolutionary. People now gained access to CNN,
the BBC, Euronews, etc. They came to realize that they were not
represented in any of them, although from our own reports it would
seem that we were at the top of all international agendas. So a
situation was created where by the full absolute control enjoyed by
the missionaries over public opinion in Kosovo was beginning to
crumble. This was followed by reports and analyses in Kosovo's
political weeklies, which attempted to articulate the political
reality of Kosovo and in regard to the Kosovo issue.
And then it happened! The student demonstration on Oct 1, 1997, took
the Albanians in to the streets. This was followed by the first
attacks on the villages in the Drenica region. And then, during a
funeral for one of the victims of these attacks, armed Albanians
(Kosovo Liberation Army) appeared for the first time. Members of the
students movement, headed by Bujar Dugoli, were saying that it was
useless to sit and wait for things to happen, something had to be done
now, at least demonstrating. Saban Jasari, the head of the family that
was massacred in March of this year, had said publicly in January that
his family "will under no circumstances leave our home." And then it
happened, the police attacked Prekaze. The outcome is known...
It is usually said that the first victim in any war is the truth. Not
always, at least as far as journalism in concerned, the opposite
happened. No one wanted to live a lie anymore. In a situation in
which it is almost impossible to influence public opinion in Kosovo,
let alone control it (satellite dishes, papers of various editorial
policies, augmented by the increasing emergence of divergent policies
among the Albanian political parties, with the events in the
Democratic Alliance of Kosovo being the most significant). Voices
spreading claims of (pre) war chaos in Kosovo are growing in numbers.
What can one say to a man whose house is daily being circled by
columns of police battle vehicles? Tell about the significance of the
Security Council resolution, and that following the Bosnian
experience?
Briefly, the return to reality was painful for everyone, even for
Kosovo's journalists.
In search of lost arguments
The long propagated policy of peace in return for a reward for the
perseverance of the Albanians, propaganda dissociated from reality,
has bred something very dangerous: those who speak and write about
peace today are less and less believable. Looking at the media in
Kosovo, there is question that imposes itself: Can Kosovo's
journalists do anything to influence public opinion against a war?
They can, but they need arguments...
That is why there are so few "local" commentaries and analyses in the
Albanian media today. One could actually say that there are none, at
least not those dealing with the real issues. At the same time, the
"referendum minded" Serbian state TV broadcasts pictures without any
Albanians in Kosovo. That seems to be the crux of the Serb solution: a
Kosovo without Albanians. Knowing that not a single opposition party
said "no" to the referendum, and that all Serb media with access to
Kosovo are either backing Milosevic or are conspicuously ambivalent,
there is little hope that Serbian communists, radicals or democrats
can expect a painless return to the reality that for Serbia Kosovo is
a foreign land. Through their behavior in Kosovo and with their
statements regarding Kosovo, this is exactly what they have shown.
(The author is editor of the Zeri weekly)
