Publication Date: March 2015
Publisher: Freedom House

The report considers three main dimensions affecting freedom of the press in the country, namely the legal, political and economic environment.

Kosovo's legal framework protects freedom of the press, and media laws are in line with the EU standards. Notwithstanding this, the media environment is affected by political interference, financial pressure, and significant ownership concentration.Political interference is widespread, affecting also the Independent Media Commission (IMC) in charge of licensing broadcasts.

Along with this, lack of experience and training of the judiciary and the police officers when confronting threats against media. The right to access to information has been established by law in 2010 but remains poorly respected. The Association of Journalists of Kosovo (AGK) reported frequent threats against journalists. The newspaper Koha Ditore was threatened to be prosecuted after refusing to hand over documents about EULEX alleged corruption.

Tags: Kosovo Media ownership

The content of this article can be used according to the terms of Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) . To do so use the the wording "this article was originally published on the Resource Centre on Media Freedom in Europe" including a direct active link to the original article page.