By In the Western Balkan countries, it is uncommon for public institutions, media organizations, and decision-makers to focus on improving the position of media employees, highlighting the need for a shift in this practice. Ardita Zejnulahu, the director of Association of Independent Broadcast Media of Kosovo (AMPEK), emphasizes that this is of utmost importance.
“Creating the foundation for improving the working conditions of journalists, will inevitably have a positive effect on media freedom in general, as safe, free and supportive working environment will ultimately help journalists face the challenges posed much easier and motivate them to ‘chase’ even the most difficult and ‘dangerous’ stories in public interest”, said Zejnullahu.
This is why it is important that Fojo media institute from Sweden has started their work in the Western Balkan countries.
“FOJO project since 2021 on this part of the world, I would say for the first time in a long time, brought the focus on working conditions for journalists, on safety of journalists and the ways to improve, personal, digital, and psychological safety in the media sector in the Western Balkans”, said Zejnullahu.
She explained that through study visits, in Stockholm – Sweden, through webinars organized throughout the life of the project, the participants were able to learn and witness firsthand the working conditions of journalists in Sweden, whilst visiting different media institutions, public and private, as well as regulatory approaches to media related content, testimonies of experienced field journalists and other related experts of the field.
For all the participants, it was very important to learn on how to improve legal, personal, digital and psychological safety for media and journalists, learn about important protocols in place, hence they commitment to bring all these experiences in their respective countries”, said Zejnullahu.
AMPEK has been a partner organization since the project’s inception. Among its contributions, and in close collaboration with Fojo, AMPEK facilitated the nomination of participants from Kosovo during the early stages of the project.
“Nominees who took part in these projects, represented local media outlets in Albanian and the in Serbian language, furthermore, in order for this project to have a bigger impact and outreach, AMPEK during the second part of the project secured participation of the Independent Media Commission – IMC, the national regulatory authority for the audiovisual media in Kosovo. The participation of the Chairperson of the IMC, who is in a position of a decision maker and will be able to disseminate further all the information and insight gathered throughout the life of this project, to all the audiovisual media that the IMC has the jurisdiction over”, said executive director of AMPEK.
Zejnullahu explained that during the first phase of the project, AMPEK has conducted trainings for local media outlets, focused on digital security.
“By doing so, AMPEK contributed in raising the capacities of targeted media while dealing with digital security threats. As a result of training 15 media outlets the project has largely contributed to improve the working conditions of journalists in local media”, said Zejnullahu.
While awareness of online dangers, such as the spread of disinformation and threats to personal privacy, is increasing, local media in Kosovo remain largely unaware of how to safeguard themselves.
“Attacks on media websites are common, and some website owners contract out cybersecurity services. Another problem is that Kosovo does not possess a country-level domain, so all government addresses are .com or .org and therefore more easily targeted by hackers. Through training media representatives of local television and radio stations in digital security, AMPEK deemed that it significantly improved the digital hygiene practices of the media workers in one hand, and media outlets on the other. In this way considerably contributed to creating better and safer working conditions for journalists and media”, said Zejnullahu.
During the second phase of the project through change projects, focus was placed in trainings on physical safety and mental health of journalists.
Training came as a result of a thorough analysis of the needs of local media representatives, and to what they deemed to be the most exigent area for the training, given the current socio-political context in Kosovo”, said Zejnullahu.
As she said, all these endeavours have very positively affected AMPEK’s work in reaching its strategic goal, the promotion of a tolerant and democratic society in Kosovo through independent media committed to the highest standards of professional working ethics.
Zejnullahu see the future of the program in its expansion.
“By discussing the importance and the continuation of this project with my peers in Kosovo, they mentioned that it would be of great importance if the police and prosecutors are involved in the upcoming phases of the project. It is important that the representatives of these institutions are familiarized and trained while dealing with journalists and media workers safety and their working conditions in general”, Zejnullahu stressed.
