As Sunny Hill 2024 Edition Ends, Festival-goers See Room for Improvements

The fourth edition of the Sunny Hill Festival in Kosovo, which was founded by global pop star Dua Lipa and her father Dukagjin, was well-received by music lovers, but there were criticisms regarding ticket prices and the need for improvement in infrastructure. The fourth edition of  Kosovo’s Sunny Hill festival, joined in the protest against…

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Kosovo Public Broadcaster’s Director Quits Over Controversial Article

Only weeks after she was appointed, Zana Spahiu has resigned as acting director of Kosovo’s public broadcaster – following criticism of the decision to publish an article that allegedly smeared two local media outlets. Kosovo’s public broadcaster, Radio Television of Kosovo, RTK, on Thursday said acting general director Zana Spahiu had resigned, effective from July…

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‘We Have built a Name’: Kosovo Sunny Hill Festival Founder Eyes Record Year

According to him, “45 per cent of the tickets sold are international, based on previous years [of attendance]”. While he acknowledges that Kosovo’s big diaspora adds to the visitor numbers, Lipa explains that “our goal is to develop an event in Kosovo that perhaps no one else could develop to the scale that we have”….

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EU Scraps Visa Requirement for Kosovo Serbs With ‘Special’ Passports

Kosovo government protests as European Commission scraps visa requirement for its residents who hold Serbian passports issued by Serbia’s Directorate for Kosovo. Kosovo residents, most of them Serbs, who have passports issued by Serbia’s Directorate for Kosovo, until now less valuable than standard Serbian passports, will now be able to cross the external border of…

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Court Finds Kosovo Bosniak Guilty of War Crimes

Ekrem Bajrovic was sentenced on Friday to 12 years’ imprisonment for his role in the beating, torture and killing of ethnic Albanian civilians who were fleeing towards Albania. The Prishtina Basic Court on Friday found Kosovo Bosniak Ekrem Bajrovic, a former member of Serbian forces during the Kosovo war in 1998-99, guilty of war crimes,…

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Second Generation Immigrants: Kosovo Albanians Making Their Mark in Swiss Business Landscape

The Kosovo Albanian community, once displaced by political turmoil and war, has recently been surging Switzerland’s business landscape at an incredible pace. The halls and offices of Google in Zurich, Switzerland, were buzzing with a harmonious blend of chit-chat and banter in Albanian and Swiss German as everyone enjoyed  the AI-inspired beer ‘Mu’Pi’ on the…

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Kosovo Public Misinformed by Authorities About War Crimes, BIRN Report Warns

Public institutions in Kosovo, including government institutions, independent agencies and justice institutions, do not have platforms properly informing the public about war crimes and transitional justice, a BIRN report launched in Kosovo on Wednesday concluded. Kreshnik Gashi, managing editor of BIRN and Internews Kosova publication in Albanian, Kallxo.com, and co-author of the report ‘The Other’, Who…

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Accommodation Challenges in Kosovo: Can Airbnb Meet the Summer Demand?

The surge in summer tourism in Kosovo, marked by the organisation of large-scale international festivals, has underscored the accommodation challenges prompting an increasing reliance on platforms such as Airbnb to fill the void left by limited hotel capacities. Rreze Cuca, from Tuz, Montenegro, was not able to find accommodation in Prishtina in 2022 when two…

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Kosovo’s ‘Commander Wolf’ Convicted of War Crimes by Hague Court

Pjeter Shala was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the arbitrary detention and torture of at least 18 detainees, and the murder of one detainee, at the Kukes Metal Factory in Albania. The Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on Tuesday found former Kosovo Liberation Army member Pjeter Shala guilty of three war crimes…

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Photographers Reflect on Documenting Kosovo’s 1990s Turmoil

Four photographers who showcased their work from the 1990s at BIRN’s Reporting House explain how difficult it was to document the hardships Kosovo faced until its liberation in 1999. Four wartime photographers recall the hardships of documenting daily life in Kosovo in the 1990s and the importance of remembrance . Their accounts, partially showcased in…

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