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Kosovo: IPI to join media freedom fact-finding mission to Pristina

Visit is understood to be first time Prime Minister Kurti will meet major media freedom delegation

Prime Minister and leader of Vetevendosje party Albin Kurti. EPA/Georgi Licovski

From 24 to 25 March 2026,  IPI will join partner organisations of the Council of Europe Platform on the Safety of Journalists and other organisations to conduct a two-day fact-finding mission to Prishtina, Kosovo. The purpose of the mission is to assess the challenges to media freedom in the country and to discuss the possible solutions with media stakeholders and authorities.

During the mission, the delegation will address political pressure on the media; the safety of journalists; journalists’ working conditions; legislation, including the media law and proposed amendments; the public broadcaster and the Independent Media Commission; journalists’ access to public information; legal threats, including abusive lawsuits (SLAPPs) and proposals to re-criminalise defamation; and the transposition and application of the European anti-SLAPP Directive, the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), and the Digital Services Act (DSA).

Prime Minister Albin Kurti has confirmed a meeting with the delegation. The delegation will also meet editors and journalists, members of the parliamentary media committee, judicial authorities, police representatives, regulatory bodies, and representatives of the public broadcaster.

Following the two-day mission, the partners will present their initial findings at a press conference in Prishtina on 25 March 2026 and will subsequently publish a report on media freedom alongside a set of recommendations. The report will be shared with relevant national and international organisations. A similar fact-finding mission to Kosovo was organised by the Platform in 2022. The mission is supported by the Association of Journalists of Kosovo.

Participating organisations:

European Centre for Press and Media Freedom
European Federation of Journalists
Reporters Without Borders
International Press Institute
Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa
Association of European Journalists
Index on Censorship

 

Press contacts: 

Jamie Wiseman, IPI Senior Europe Advocacy Officer – [email protected]

 

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