A journalist of the Serbian media portal KoSSev was attacked last Friday in North Mitrovica while on duty, whereas several shots have been fired on KoSSev office on 11 June this year by unknown persons.
Editor-in-chief of the KoSSev portal Tatjana Lazarevic said to Danas that even though there are no links between those attacks they should warn the general public not only on the risk of being a journalist but on the extent to which the truth and interest of the general public are jeopardized.
She went on to say that media associations are also organized following the ethnic principle, thus there is the Association of Journalist of Kosovo and Metohija, which is the branch of the Association of Journalists of Serbia that gathers most of media associations that report in Serbian language, whereas Albanian journalists are gathered around the Association of Professional Journalists of Kosovo. She added that there are meetings and official contacts between those two associations lately and that they also discussed further official cooperation at the meeting in Pristina on 30 April this year. She also said that there are good contacts between journalists who report in Albanian and Serbian languages, and between media houses.
When asked about the openness of the Kosovo institutions for Serbia media Lazarevic said that institutions in Pristina are not open and added that Albanian colleagues have the similar experience. She singled out the Minister for Communities and Return Dalibor Jevtic and the Central Bank of Kosovo as the only positive experiences when it comes to central Kosovo institutions’ communication with media.
Lazarevic stressed as particular problem communiqués that are mostly issue only in Albanian language, or in a poor Serbian language.
When asked to which extent is Belgrade ready to support independent journalism in Kosovo, Lazarevic said that it is not ready at all since there is no such thing in Belgrade either.
