UNS: UN agencies in Kosovo violate the equal use of the Serbian language

The Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS), together with its branch in Kosovo, has called on UNICEF to begin regularly publishing content in the Serbian language on its Instagram account, as it consistently does in Albanian.

UNS stated that this is not the first time it has observed that UNICEF—an agency dedicated to protecting children’s rights and providing assistance to children worldwide—fails to publish content in Serbian on its social media platforms.

UNS had already raised this issue two months ago.

“Since the beginning of the year, UNS has repeatedly reacted to the fact that certain agencies of the United Nations are violating the Law on the Use of Languages by sending press releases and information to Serbian-language media exclusively in Albanian,” the UNS statement reads.

It is also recalled that UNMIK, in its daily bulletin in English dated November 28 last year, ceased publishing media content in Serbian and Albanian as separate sections, and has since predominantly relayed reports from Albanian-language media, prompting a protest from UNS.

At the time, UNS in Kosovo sent a letter to UNMIK requesting clarification of this decision, pointing out that it had disrupted the sensitive balance built over the previous two decades.

In its letter, the Journalists' Association of Serbia also stressed that this move jeopardized impartial reporting, noting that even after four months, no response had been received from UNMIK.

In the meantime, according to UNS, UNMIK has completely ceased distributing this bulletin.

At the same time, it is recalled that the authorities in Kosovo have, for the past three years, restricted the distribution of Serbian daily newspapers.

UNS once again emphasizes that obstructing the work of journalists reporting in the Serbian language is unacceptable, and that such practices not only violate the Law on the Use of Languages but also undermine the right to information guaranteed by international conventions.