Indicators of Risks to Media Pluralism

Why? 

There is no available audience data for TV, radio and online, thus the risk of Media Audience Concentration in Kosovo is high. There is no agency providing public data on media audience measurements in Kosovo. The only measurements are done through public opinion surveys. 

Why? 

Due to the unavailability of financial and audience data in the Kosovo media market, it is impossible to measure media ownership concentration. The media have not responded to MOM questions regarding their revenues, revenues from advertising and profit generated. According to existing legislation in Kosovo, the Tax Administration of Kosovo does not provide data on the financial circulation of businesses, including the media. In addition, the Ministry of Finances has not provided the financial statements of the media, either. The Independent Media Commission does not publish financial data of the media. Furthermore, due to the unavailability of other data, it is impossible to compute horizontal concentration. MOM was able to obtain financial data only for three TV stations, namely RTK, Klan Kosova and RTV 21. MOM was unable to calculate market shares of Radio and Online media companies due to unavailability of data. There is no print market in the country.

Why?

The Republic of Kosovo does not have legislation that defines objective criteria to prevent media concentration. The Independent Media Commission, IMC, as the regulatory body as well as the Law regulating the IMC,  do not contain criteria or limitations in order to identify or prevent media concentration.
The only mechanism for the regulation of competition is the Competition Authority, whose mission is to carry out activities aimed at creating conditions for the markets to provide more benefit for consumers, businesses and the society as a whole, protecting competition in the market, and promoting a healthy competition in Kosovo. However, the Competition Authority cannot specifically handle the issue of media ownership, due to a lack of regulation. 

Currently, Kosovo is in the process of adopting new legislation on the Independent Media Commission which envisages the matter of media concentration, whereas the IMC has put the Draft Regulation on Media Concentration up for public consultations.

The situation is the same concerning radio and the internet.

Regulatory Safeguard Score:

3 out of 20 = High Risk (15%).

1 = media-specific regulation/ authority

0.5 = competition-related regulation/ authority

 SOURCES:

Why?

In Kosovo, there is no data to determine the major 8 media owners, as there is no market data. Furthermore, there is no available data on television viewership, radio listeners, nor the number of clicks of online media. The only available data is on related to likes on social media networks or interactions with users, but this data does not show the power and influence of a media. Therefore, the risk of Cross-Media Ownership Concentration is rated as HIGH RISK

Why?

Regulatory Safeguard Score: 2 out of 8 – High Risk (Regulation: 20%)

The Republic of Kosovo does not have legislation that defines objective criteria to prevent cross-media concentration. The Independent Media Commission, IMC, as the regulatory body, as well as the Law regulating the IMC, do not contain criteria or limitations for identifying or preventing cross-media concentration.
The only authority responsible for regulating concentration is the Competition Authority, whose mission is to create conditions for the markets that benefit consumers, businesses and the society as a whole. It aims to protect market competition and promote healthy competition in Kosovo. However, the Competition Authority cannot specifically address the issue of cross-media ownership due to a lack of regulation. 

Kosovo is currently adopting new legislation on the Independent Media Commission which envisages addressing the matter of media concentration, whereas the IMC has made the Draft Regulation on Media Concentration available for public consultations. This situation applies to radio, written media, and the internet as well.

SOURCES:

Why?

Media ownership structures and financial reports of all registered businesses are available at the Kosovo Business Registration Agency, KBRA. KBRA's web page enables the search of businesses by inputting the name of the business, business registration number or the ID of the owner. Furthermore, the online register biznesetehapura.com enabled by NGO "Open Data Kosovo'' is accessible to the public and allows searches by company or owner.

KBRA has granted access to MOM for all businesses operating in the media market, which enabled the team to see the history of ownership changes and documents submitted by the media as proof of ownership. 

Furthermore, Independent Media Commission, IMC's web page contains the list of media (both radio and TV stations) licensed by the IMC. The IMC has also responded to FOI requests submitted by MOM and has shown the owners of businesses that applied for licenses or those that already own licenses issued by the IMC.

The Tax Administration of Kosovo and the Ministry of Finances have not responded to MOM on the financial statements of the media. Data is public only for several media: RTK, RTV 21, Klan Kosova and Kallxo.com. 

In addition, MOM invited media owners to exercise transparency by responding to Information requests that were sent out in August 2023 to all media companies investigated. 15 out of 24 companies/media groups provided detailed replies to our information requests. 

Active transparency means company/channel informs proactively and comprehensively about its ownership, data is constantly updated and easily verifiable.

In the revised sample of 104 entities (44 media outlets, 35 companies, and 25 owners), none were ranked as Actively Transparent.

Passive Transparency means that upon request, ownership data is easily available from the company/from a channel. 

In the Passive Transparency category, 13 media outlets, including 4 TV stations, 4 radio stations, and 5 online media outlets, were found to be passively transparent. Additionally, 13 companies and 7 individual owners were also ranked as Passively Transparent, accounting for 31.73% of the entire sample.

Data publicly available means ownership data is easily available from other sources, e. g. public registries etc. 

For the Data Publicly Available category, a more substantial number of entities were identified. This included 31 outlets, with 8 TV stations, 11 radio stations, and 12 online media outlets. Alongside these, 22 companies and 18 owners were categorized as having their Data Publicly Available. Overall, this represented 68.27% of the total sample of 104 entities, including media outlets, companies, and owners.

Why?

According to the Law on the Independent Media Commission and the Regulations of the Independent Media Commission, Kosovo media are obliged to present to the IMC  their data concerning ownership and changes in ownership when this change affects 10% or more shares. Furthermore, the media (televisions and radios) are obliged to submit their financial reports to the Independent Media Commission, while these reports are also submitted to the Tax Administration of Kosovo or the Department for Non Governmental Organisations, while there is no clear obligation for the media to publish their ownership  information on their websites.

Likewise, the Independent Media Commission also has a media register, which reflects some other basic aspects of the media  ownership structures.

Also, data related to the ownership of media that operate as businesses can also be found at the Business Registration Agency (ARBK).

Regulatory Safeguard Score:

3 out of 5 – Medium Risk (60%)

SOURCES:

Why?

The number of media outlets in Kosovo is continuously increasing, despite having a market of only 1.7 million inhabitants. A portion of the media was established during the 90s, when Kosovo was under the Slobodan Milosevic regime. However, they had to start from scratch in 1999, after the end of the war, due to damaged infrastructure. The three national frequency television, RTK, KTV and RTV21 were established thanks to the donations of international organizations present in Kosovo, as well.

In the past 23 years since the aftermath of the war, there have been cases when media owners or journalists entered politics. Examples of cases when journalists, editors or media owners because politicians, advisors to ministers, prime ministers or presidents are numerous.

RTK – the Board of the Radio Television of Kosovo is elected by the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo. Members of Kosovo Parliament interview candidates for the Board of RTK, who are then voted by members of the Parliament to be entrusted with the role of  members of the RTK Board. The latter is elected by the majority of members of the Parliament. Amongst their competencies are the selection of senior management of RTK, including the General Director of RTK and the directors of all channels. The RTK Board reports to the Parliamentary Committee on Budget and Finances on a three-months basis. Currently, RTK depends on the Government and the Assembly, due to their budget being allocated by the consolidated budget of the Republic of Kosovo. 

Score: 2.37

Why?

9.1 Print Distribution Networks – Not applicable for the Kosovo market since there is no print media.. 

9.2 Radio Distribution Networks –The IMC licenses radio stations in Kosovo. Radio stations have either local, regional or national level frequency. There is no political control on the radio stations, due to the medium  not being amongst the most influential media. 

9.3 Television Distribution Networks – There are only three national level frequency media, namely RTK, KTV and RTV 21. They were granted their national frequencies in 2000. Since then, no new national frequency licenses have been issued nor revoked. There have been attempts to re-tender these three licenses, however they never received the necessary support of the relevant institutions to do so. 

9.4 Leading Internet distribution networks in Kosovo are IPKO, Kosovo Telekom (KT), Art Motion, Kujtesa, Telkos and MTS (subsidiary of Srbija Telekom). 

9.5  The advertising market in Kosovo is dispersed. Majority of advertising is directly contracted through the advertising businesses/companies, thus avoiding marketing/advertising agencies. There are no indications that advertising companies discriminate against independent media, therefore the assessment is low risk.   

9.6. There is no agency or mechanism that measures audience share in the country. Thus, the assessment is high risk. 

Score: 7/5 = 1.4 Low Risk

Why?

In 2023, no funds were allocated by the Government for private media in Kosovo. The current Government had pledged to prohibit allocation of funds for advertisement in the media, and once in power it stopped all advertisement contracts between the Government and the media on one hand, and public enterprises and the media, on the other.

Kosovo has a Public Broadcasting Service, PBS, and the only public funds invested in a media go to the latter, namely RTK. The funds allocated for the public TV are channelled through the Assembly of Kosovo. This form of funding has been criticised widely as a form of political influence on the RTK. Usually, the Assembly of Kosovo allocated the budget requested by the RTK, however, the amounts allocated are usually smaller than those requested by the RTK.

In July 2023, the Government allocated a small fund of 50,000 for non-majority communities. The funds were distributed through an open call open to all interested parties, while the process of application was transparent.

The Government notified that the funds were distributed to the following media “SH.I.M. Kosovahaber”  from Turkish community with 6,500 euros; “Connection Media”  from Roma community with 5,500 euros; “Gazeta Scanner”  from Egyptian community with 7,800 euros; media “Prosperiteti” from Ashkali community with 7,500 euros, “Dardana Press” from Roma community  4,500 euros,  “Radio Televizija Mir” from the Serb community with  6,500 euros and “RTV Plus”, from the Serb community with 6,000 euros. 

Score:1.14 = Low Risk 

Why?

The obligations of companies that provide access to the Internet Service (ISP) concerning the net neutrality rules are specified in the Regulations approved by the Regulatory Authority for Electronic and Postal Communications (RAEPC): Regulation No. 37 for General Authorizations  and Regulation No. 38 on Contracts, Transparency and Publication of Information and other Protective Measures for End Users for the Provision of Electronic Communications Networks and Services. 

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) when providing services must treat all types of traffic equally, on a non-discriminatory basis, without restrictions or interference, and regardless of the sender and recipient, the content accessed or distributed, the applications or services offered or distributed, or the terminal equipment used.

The current legislation does not regulate "zero rating". In 2017, during public consultations with various stakeholders, RAEPC proposed the adjustment of the "zero rating", however, after obtaining comments from operators and taking into account the fact that the "zero rating" was not applied by the operators, they decided not to regulate this issue.

Based on the current Regulatory framework for Electronic Communications, the issue of content regulation, including web pages, is outside the domain of RAEPC’s responsibilities.

However, in specific cases, in implementation of the decisions issued by various Institutions such as, e.g. the decision of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo to impose sanctions on the Russian Federation, where one of the requests was the closure of certain websites of Russian televisions, in this case, in accordance with the opinion of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), RAEPC instructed Internet access service providers to undertake all necessary actions to implement the decisions.https://www.arkep-rks.org/NewsDetails/7/261

Score: 6 out of 11 = (55%) Medium Risk

Why?

According to a survey conducted by Peaceful Change Initiative in Kosovo, there are twice as many women journalists than editors, while the position of editors-in-chief represents a very low percentage of women. Still it is hard to conclude if women still face enormous odds like the glass ceiling in media jobs, without having statistical data on leading editorial positions in the newsroom and see if there is any disparity in leading positions.

A report from Kosovo Journalists Association (AJK) confirms that there is no statistical data on leading editorial positions in the newsrooms, but that women journalists are more likely to hold editorial positions in the newsroom, especially in the mainstream media, whereas the men journalists are more in charge of the managerial sector. None of the 265 women respondents held a managerial position. 

Poor representation of women in debates on TV news channels has been an important issue that has been frequently raised and highlighted by the community of journalists in Kosovo. But the absence of women from the screen is in total contrast with the visual presence during TV news, with women representing the majority of field reporters. 

BIRN engaged in monitoring four major TV broadcasters in Kosovo over a two-week period, January 15-31 2023. During the monitoring, BIRN counted a total of 100 male guests on political talk shows, and just nine women. Men, usually involved in politics or civil society, dominated discussions about politics, security and the economy. The tone was often combative amongst the panellists.

The nine women were invited to talk about domestic violence and foreign policy.

BIRN monitoring also showed that on social networks, negative comments aimed at female guests were often unrelated to the topic of discussion, whereas comments concerning the male guests were invariably relevant to the issue at hand.

At the same time, the 2022 Journalists Safety Index of the Association of Kosovo Journalists has shown that in comparison to 2021, when there were three cases of attacks, threats and harassment toward women journalists reported to the AJK, during 2022, their number doubled. In 2022, besides the 6 cases of attacks, threats and harassment towards women journalists, there are 15 cases of attacks, one group out of which include women journalists. The same report noted that overall, the working conditions of women journalists in the newsroom are not different from those of their male counterparts. It also emphasised that although there is no official data on how many women and men have signed employment contracts, according to some assessments, there are noticeably more women journalists in the newsrooms. Furthermore, according to AJK’s database, which consists of 900 journalists, editors, cameramen and photojournalists, there are over 550 journalists and editors, over 300 of whom are women.

Out of the media in the MOM sample in Kosovo, 8 are either owned by women, or women hold shares in them, while 33 are owned by men.

Score: 2.62 = High Risk