Fatime Stavileci, an official and former head of the Civil Registry Office in the Municipality of North Mitrovica, today issued a threat involving the Kosovo Police and exerted undue pressure on the work of a journalist from the KoSSev portal.
Earlier this morning, KoSSev journalist Dragana Vukosavljević contacted Stavileci by phone while investigating reports that the Municipality of North Mitrovica had suddenly halted the registration of newborns and deaths.
Municipal officials had previously directed journalist Vukosavljević to Stavileci as the key person in the Civil Registry Office while she was seeking information on another registration issue on February 25, after the Ministry of Internal Affairs decided to recognize Serbian documents.
As she had done before, Stavileci courteously provided the information available to her, directing the journalist to relevant ministries in Pristina, explaining that she was “not authorized beyond confirming that registrations had been suspended and could not provide further details.”
However, after the article containing information of public interest was published, journalist Vukosavljević received a phone call from Stavileci with the following message:
“Why are you mentioning my name? You could have simply written ‘Civil Registry Office.’ You do not have the right to publish my name,” Stavileci said.
During the initial conversation, Stavileci had not requested that her name be omitted from publication.
When the journalist asked what information in the article was inaccurate, Stavileci replied:
“You are not allowed to use my name. That’s why I told you that Pristina is responsible, not me. I will come to your office with the police in two minutes. Delete my name immediately, or I will come with the police. You will deal with this. I will sue you, be sure of that. And I want to know who gave you my number.”
Later, we attempted to contact Stavileci again to ask why she had issued threats and exerted pressure on a journalist performing her professional duties.
In a brief conversation with the portal’s editor, when asked why she had threatened the journalist and pressured her work, Stavileci responded before hanging up:
“Come to my office to discuss.”
At the same time, we sent inquiries to the Municipality of North Mitrovica, demanding urgent answers regarding why a municipal official issued threats and exerted inappropriate pressure on a journalist, what actions the Municipality will take to address this behavior, and why both citizens and media outlets are regularly referred to central authorities in Pristina for local administrative matters.
Additionally, we asked when local officials will cease their persistent practice of ignoring Serbian-language media.
As of the publication of this article, neither the Kosovo Police nor Ms. Stavileci have appeared at our newsroom.
KoSSev will report this incident to professional journalistic associations as well as the Kosovo Ombudsman’s Office.
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
