OSCE Mission in Kosovo

The Media Standards Unit of the Mission in Kosovo's Democratization Department supports the development of free, responsible, unbiased and professional media in Kosovo.

A free and responsible media is an integral component of any democratic society. It ensures that the public is provided with unbiased and balanced information and is able to make informed decisions and form opinions on issues of crucial importance to Kosovo. A functioning democracy is characterized not only by free exchange of opinion and information between individual citizens, but also by free, independent and pluralistic mass media.

In short, information received through professional and independent media fosters and encourages public engagement in political and economic life. The stress is on professional and independent media, neither of which really existed in Kosovo when the Mission took up its mandate in 1999.

Kosovo's approximately two million inhabitants can choose between eight daily papers and several periodicals, which have a joint circulation of a maximum of 30,000 copies, three Kosovo-wide TV and four radio channels, as well as 111 local radio and TV broadcasters.

Media education

Despite or maybe even because of the high number of media outlets, Kosovo is in desperate need of both, good journalism and professional journalists as well as its own media education centre. Kosovo's media need better trained editorial staff. The establishment of a mid-career training centre for editorial staff, the Kosovo Media Institute - owned by the media outlets themselves - is therefore one of the core activities of the Mission.

Another focus is on advancing and increasing professionalism at Kosovo's public broadcaster, Radio Television Kosovo (RTK), which is not only the newest but also one of the poorest public broadcasters in Europe. Support is offered to the editorial and legislative development of RTK, to ensure that it is a politically, financially and editorially independent and journalistically professional multi-ethnic public broadcaster serving all the citizens of Kosovo.

Media legislation

Free and independent media depend on a modern, comprehensive, just and, above all, fully implemented legislative framework guaranteeing freedom of speech and the access to information.

Media legislation is, however, not an integrated field of law. It is rather a corpus juris of media relevant legislation to be found in different jurisdiction, such as the Provisional Criminal Code, the Civil Code or the Public Broadcasting Law. The Mission's involvement in creating a media-friendly legislative framework therefore involves advice to different parliamentary committees and assistance during the drafting process of media legislation.

Media regulation

If the media is the fourth estate and the watchdog of a democracy, who should then scrutinise and watch the media? The answer is the media themselves. This is the reason why the Mission is assisting in the creation and in the functioning of a self-regulatory body for the print media, the Press Council of Kosovo. In summer 2005, the Press Council, which is owned by all the print media themselves, took over the regulatory role for print media from the Temporary Media Commissioner. The Press Council was invested with considerable powers, such as the power to impose fines for newspapers breaching the Code of Conduct, and to force newspapers to print its adjudications.

Regulation of the electronic media is carried out by the Temporary Media Commissioner, which is in the process of being transformed into the Independent Media Commission. The OSCE Mission is assisting this new independent media regulatory body by advising on both legal and policy issues.