Reporters Without Borders monitor for Kosovo Ismet Hajdari, in an open letter writes that the lynching campaign that is going on through social networks against publicist Veton Surroi, has caused great concern to Reporters Without Borders organization. Hajdari writes that this is about the same sense of frustration repeated from year to year when the World Press Freedom Index is published, in which Kosovo doesn’t appear where it belongs, among European countries. “Surroi’s case, although still only on the threat scale, will greatly affect the ranking of Kosovo in the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index. The Reporters Without Borders will also bring up the this case at the Council of Europe, where Kosovo hopes to apply for membership this year,” reads the letter. “All this, because since the start, this “debate” has passed the academic line and it could cost someone their head, while the vast majority of the public remains silent.”
The author further writes that this campaign against Surroi has proven once again the very dramatic lack of intellectual debate in Kosovo. “The purpose of this open letter, which has the stamp of the Reporters Without Borders, is not only to protect Surroi. The purpose of this letter is to call on the public opinion in Kosovo, media and all those who want the best for Kosovo not to allow violation of freedom of speech and expression. The purpose of this letter is that by protecting Surroi’s right to speak what he wants and where he wants, Kosovo and its citizens would protect themselves, respectively inalienable right to have the same right.”
