A Kosovan NGO „ÇOHU!“ published a monitoring report on eight Kosovo portals, alleging that they „are violating the reporting code of ethics“ – Pristina based online media and RTV Kim reported. The KoSSev portal is the only media outlet reporting in the Serbian language that this NGO monitored and placed on the list of media outlets violating the code of ethics due to „readers’ comments“ which are published directly from their social network accounts. The “ÇOHU!” did not previously inform KoSSev’s editorial staff and newsroom that it will be presenting results of this research. Furthermore, the press release this NGO sent to the RTV Kim newsroom was not delivered to KoSSev.
The „Organization for Democracy, Anti-Corruption and Dignity – ÇOHU“ published a report on monitoring web portals in Kosovo on the subject of violations of the code of ethics of journalistic standards, RTV Kim reported.
According to RTV Kim, eight media portals were monitored every day between May 2018 and April 2019 – Express, Zeri, Indeksonline, Insajderi, Telegrafi, Gazeta Blic, Veriu and KoSSev.
The majority of complaints were filed against Indeksonline portal (18), and the highest number of complaints that were adopted were filed against Gazeta Blic (9) – the report said.
„We sent complaints to the Kosovo Press Council at least once a week which were created based on what we monitored, read, and observed in terms of potential code violations on a daily basis – based on which they made decisions, i.e. to adopt or reject them,“ Qerim Ondozi, the head of the investigative journalism program of the „ÇOHU!“ organization, told RTV Kim.
Speaking about the KoSSev portal, Ondozi said that the complaints related to this portal “mostly concerned the readers’ comments,“ RTV Kim reported.
„The news was fine, but we sent complaints to the Kosovo Press Council because of user comments. Comments included blackmail, threats, or hate speech. During this year, we have sent 13 complaints to the Press Council regarding this portal, i.e. concerning 13 different news or comments. The council accepted 4 complaints and rejected 9,“ Ondozi said.
The KoSSev portal editor-in-chief, Tatjana Lazarevic told RTV Kim that they did not have any contact with the „ÇOHU!“ organization, and were unaware that KoSSev was being monitored, or more importantly that they were uninformed about the presentation event of the research findings. Lazarevic also said that she first learned about the report from Pristina-based media and then, furthermore from a RTV Kim journalist.
„Speaking of comments, I want to emphasize the following: Comments posted either on our site or on our social media pages, namely Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, are posted by users directly from their social media accounts. We are one of those media outlets that do not have their own site comment administrative software. We do not have this platform and we do not receive the comments for approval, but they are published directly through the accounts of individuals or group users – through these networks,” Lazarevic said.
She pointed out that the KoSSev editorial team – when they see comments that in any way spread religious, national or gender-based hatred and discrimination, contain offensive words, etc. – can respond with a comment that emphasizes that while editorial politics includes an absolute freedom of speech, it is nevertheless subject to public criticism, so that attention of users must be paid to the words they use.
„We primarily urge that no words of hate, violence, or discrimination on any grounds are used. Another thing we do through our Facebook page is use the option provided by Facebook – applying a filter that contains a list of offensive words. Of course, this filter, as much as it helps, cannot prevent a comment from an individual reader, primarily because it is a comment in non-English, so if the comments are in Serbian, the words change by case, gender, number. Therefore, even if we have previously inserted that word, the filter does not recognize it if it is in any way modified,“ Lazarevic explained.
The KoSSev editor-in-chief stressed that small media outlets in Kosovo often lack both technical and human resources to install and run their own site comment administrative software.
Monitoring of the above-mentioned portals is still ongoing and will be completed in April 2020, when “ÇOHU!” will prepare its final report, RTV Kim reported.
The report of the “ÇOHU!” sponsored by KFOS (Kosovo Foundation for Open Society) and “Luxembourg Aid & Development” – which we managed to find only in the Albanian language until this news was published – is available HERE.
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
