UNS and DNKiM: Kosovo officials and institutions must stop discriminating against Serbian-language media

The Journalists’ Association of Serbia (UNS), together with its branch, the Society of Journalists of Kosovo and Metohija (DNKiM), expressed protest over the violation of the Law on the Use of Languages in Kosovo during the visit of Kosovo’s caretaker Minister of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade, Mimoza Kusari-Lila, to northern Kosovo.

As stated in the announcement, Kusari-Lila today visited the newly opened premises of the Kosovo Forestry Agency and the Agricultural Development Agency in North Mitrovica, after which she spoke with the media.

“Although only media crews reporting in the Serbian language were present on the ground, five of them in total, Kusari-Lila responded in Albanian to questions asked in Serbian, which she understood well. When journalists requested that she speak in Serbian, a language she knows and has publicly used on multiple occasions before, she merely shook her head,” UNS stated.

After answering several questions, one of the journalists present asked her whether she had an interpreter, to which she — again in Albanian — replied that she did, but that this was not a press conference, rather a regular visit.

“Although this was a visit by a high-ranking official of the Kosovo Government to northern Kosovo, media outlets reporting in the north of Kosovo were once again not informed about her arrival. UNS recalls that the Law on the Use of Languages is in force in Kosovo, under which Albanian and Serbian are equal in their official status, and all central institutions are obliged to ensure that every person can communicate and receive information of public importance in their own language,” the statement said.

UNS and DNKiM emphasize that if a minister or any other high-ranking official does not wish to use the other official language or does not know it, they are not required to do so personally, but the institution they represent is obligated, in compliance with the law, to provide translation.

“UNS and DNKiM call on the institutions of the Language Commissioner and the Ombudsman, as well as international organizations promoting the rule of law, to take the necessary steps so that media reporting in Serbian and minority languages can carry out their work without obstruction,” the statement added.