American media: The end of the crisis when Kurti stops suppressing freedom of speech and lets the Serbs decide in the north

Instead of calming the situation in the north of Kosovo, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti attacked the media that reported on that crisis, the American Brunswick News writes, adding that the crisis will end when Kurti gives up suppressing freedom of speech in Kosovo and when he allows the Serbs in the north to lead their local businesses.

The American portal recalls that there was an increase in tensions between, as they say, the majority of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and the Serb minority because Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti appointed Albanian mayors in four cities with a Serb majority in the north of Kosovo after the Serbs boycotted the elections.

As they add, violence and roadblocks followed, starting at the end of May, which has led to the injuries of dozens of members of the United Nations peacekeeping forces and even more locals. As a result, they say, NATO has increased the number of peacekeepers in Kosovo in an attempt to prevent further violence.

It is also recalled that Kurti's actions brought swift condemnation from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French President Emmanuel Macron for fueling an unnecessary crisis.

"And in a last-ditch effort to calm the stormy waters, former President Bill Clinton, who is largely responsible for ending the war in Kosovo nearly 25 years ago, has again traveled to the Balkans in hopes of restoring order. Their shared concerns and the ethnic Serbian resistance so far have not dissuaded Prime Minister Kurti. Instead, Kurti has used state institutions to try to target the media reporting on the crisis," the text said.

As explained, at an extraordinary hearing in mid-June, the Kosovo Ministry of Industry, Entrepreneurship, and Trade had suspended the business certificate of the television station Klan Kosova and its parent company and had filed an indictment against the company's managers for the alleged crime of calling Kosovo cities Serbian.

Days later, it added, ministry officials had also completely revoked the business certificate of cable provider Artmotion LLC, citing it as a serious threat to public safety.

Since 2018, Artmotion has provided subscription cable TV services to one million Kosovo homes in cooperation with companies such as Sony, Paramount, and NBCUniversal.

As Klan Kosova is broadcast on the cable network Artmotion, this move practically shut down the TV station.

The American paper said the action had prompted the International Press Institute to join other media freedom and journalism organizations in expressing outrage, calling the Kosovo government's actions "extremely serious" and saying they posed a "threat to the exercise of media freedom in Kosovo."

Kosovo journalist, Adriatik Kelmendi, expressed his shock that this kind of censorship of leading national media could happen in a democracy.

As he stated, Brunswick News reports, this had been done to intimidate the "people whose ideal to live freely has never been suppressed". He added that Klan Kosova maintained a critical and supervisory approach to various phenomena within government institutions and society.

"That move by the government is a stain on Kosovo's claim that it is a democratic state," Kelmendi said, adding that "there are powerful people who intend to close the media, as they do in places like Russia and Belarus, as well as in Serbia and North Korea."

Tensions between the ethnic Serbs and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, according to American reports, but also between Serbia and Kosovo, remain high.

"Kurti's hard stance only strengthened the resistance of the Serbs and angered the Serbian government. Meanwhile, the European Union imposed sanctions on Kosovo, including stopping a large part of economic aid and threatened new measures if Kurti does not give up," the text states.

It is recalled that Clinton in Tirana called on the government of Kosovo to stop its actions of division in the north with a Serbian majority.

"What important political issue can be advanced by the way those four small towns are run? It's easy for the Albanians who are now in the majority (in Kosovo) to try to use the moment to make a point. But the real thing we need to do is stop this nonsense," Clinton added.

That "foolishness," as the text concludes, must certainly include hostile actions taken against the most popular cable TV network and TV station in the country.

"Only when Kurti gives up this clearly political attack on Klan Kosova and Artmotion — from stifling freedom of speech in his country — and allows the ethnic Serbs in the north to run their own local affairs, will this crisis end," it is stated.