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,…
Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic ordered the ‘Miredita, Dobar Dan!’ festival to be banned on security grounds, while journalists and some organisers trying to reach the festival from Kosovo were halted on the road by police. Serbia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs on Thursday ordered the ‘Miredita, Dobar Dan!’ cultural exchange festival to be banned on…
Residents of Gorazdevac, a Serb majority village in the municipality of Peja/Pec, Kosovo, claim they are struggling to integrate into Kosovo society because of obstacles including language and infrastructure barriers. Kosovo Serbs from Gorazdevac, a village approximately seven kilometres from Peja/Pec municipality, requested at a public hearing also attended by BIRN and local media outlet…
A new BIRN report highlights the shortcomings in legal structures and institutional responses in Kosovo when it comes to combating technology-facilitated and online gender-based violence. Kosovo’s lack of specific internet regulations has resulted in a legal vacuum which makes it difficult for authorities to effectively protect users from online abuses, a BIRN report published on Tuesday highlighted….
The accused A.P. has been found guilty by the Prishtina Basic Court for harassing KALLXO.com journalist Arjana Berisha via telephone, in August 2022, after the publication of a video recording showing a bus driver using a mobile phone. The Association of Journalists of Kosovo, AJK, reacted on Thursday after the Prishtina Basic Court issued a…