The tragedy was afterwards followed by anger, despair and outbursts that took place mainly on social media. Nevertheless it was obvious that people were affected by this event and as such the tragedy made a social impact and gathered much attention.

New report suggests some progress from previous years.

The U.S. State Department released its 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report this week, which indicates that Kosovo has a long way to go to tackle the phenomenon. As with last year, Kosovo has been categorized as a Tier 2 country, meaning it has “not fully met Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s (TVPA) minimum standards” but is “making significant efforts” to do so.

Abit Hoxha, a journalism researcher, writes in an op-ed that media ownership in Kosovo is still “very fluid” in terms of who owns what and how this translates into influence on journalism.  On one hand, you have the economic ownership whereby “business owners attempts to utilize media, not only as a business in itself but also as a means to protect their businesses from media” and on the other, there’s the political ownership where political parties own or control certain media outlets as a way to gain power.

KOSOVO 2.0 has published an opinion piece by Eraldin Fazliu who notes that after weeks of tense relations between Kosovo and Serbia, both parties will today sit down in Brussels to continue the EU-mediated dialogue process. Discussions will take place at the highest level, with presidents Hashim Thaci and Tomislav Nikolic joining prime ministers Isa Mustafa and Aleksandar Vucic in today’s meeting.

Though rhetoric has been positive, little benefit has been felt by Kosovo’s vulnerable communities this year.