Kosovo government protests as European Commission scraps visa requirement for its residents who hold Serbian passports issued by Serbia’s Directorate for Kosovo. Kosovo residents, most of them Serbs, who have passports issued by Serbia’s Directorate for Kosovo, until now less valuable than standard Serbian passports, will now be able to cross the external border of…
Ekrem Bajrovic was sentenced on Friday to 12 years’ imprisonment for his role in the beating, torture and killing of ethnic Albanian civilians who were fleeing towards Albania. The Prishtina Basic Court on Friday found Kosovo Bosniak Ekrem Bajrovic, a former member of Serbian forces during the Kosovo war in 1998-99, guilty of war crimes,…
The Kosovo Albanian community, once displaced by political turmoil and war, has recently been surging Switzerland’s business landscape at an incredible pace. The halls and offices of Google in Zurich, Switzerland, were buzzing with a harmonious blend of chit-chat and banter in Albanian and Swiss German as everyone enjoyed the AI-inspired beer ‘Mu’Pi’ on the…
Public institutions in Kosovo, including government institutions, independent agencies and justice institutions, do not have platforms properly informing the public about war crimes and transitional justice, a BIRN report launched in Kosovo on Wednesday concluded. Kreshnik Gashi, managing editor of BIRN and Internews Kosova publication in Albanian, Kallxo.com, and co-author of the report ‘The Other’, Who…
The surge in summer tourism in Kosovo, marked by the organisation of large-scale international festivals, has underscored the accommodation challenges prompting an increasing reliance on platforms such as Airbnb to fill the void left by limited hotel capacities. Rreze Cuca, from Tuz, Montenegro, was not able to find accommodation in Prishtina in 2022 when two…
Pjeter Shala was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the arbitrary detention and torture of at least 18 detainees, and the murder of one detainee, at the Kukes Metal Factory in Albania. The Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on Tuesday found former Kosovo Liberation Army member Pjeter Shala guilty of three war crimes…
Four photographers who showcased their work from the 1990s at BIRN’s Reporting House explain how difficult it was to document the hardships Kosovo faced until its liberation in 1999. Four wartime photographers recall the hardships of documenting daily life in Kosovo in the 1990s and the importance of remembrance . Their accounts, partially showcased in…
Muhamet Alidemaj, a former member of the Serbian police, was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment by the Prishtina Basic Court for participating in a massacre at Izbice during the Kosovo war in March 1999, when around 130 people were shot dead. The Prishtina Basic Court on Friday found Muhamet Alidemaj, a former member of the…
Experts at BIRN’s annual Internet Freedom Meet, in Skopje, North Macedonia, warned that the Western Balkan countries do not have the proper legal framework to protect human rights from misuse of technological advancements. Human rights violations have become more likely and the manner of achieving those violations has become more varied as a result of…
Government says ban on use of popular social media platform in state institutions reflects security risks and follows the example set by many other countries. The Kosovo government on June 28 banned use of the social media network TikTok in state institutions amid growing global concerns over its potential vulnerability to cyber threats. Bardhyl Dobra,…