By Madeleine Doan
Currently, I am sitting in my wooden chair behind my wobbly desk. Whilst looking at the grey skies outside, I am reflecting on another interesting day. Over the past days, we had the pleasure of virtually travelling through Kosovo to meet with different organizations, each with their own mission, but all united in the common goal of helping Kosovo to grow. Today, we had the pleasure of meeting with Kosovo 2.0. Kosovo 2.0 is an independent, modern media organization based in Prishtina. This organization was founded by Besa Luci -a journalist from Kosovo- in 2010, as Kosovo’s very first blogging platform. In 2010, Kosovo was two years post-independence. After the war, the image the world had of Kosovo was largely determined by international media.
There was a dominant foreign frame that talked about Kosovo in terms of war, corruption, organised crime, inter-ethnic tensions and conflicts which created a very unilateral image of the country. As a young girl, living through the Kosovo war, 29-year-old Besa was frustrated with these media practices and the way Kosovo was portrayed. This formed the main driver for her to establish a platform to unite young people from within Kosovo and beyond Kosovo’s borders, to change the discourse. Ever since the establishment of this platform, Kosovo 2.0 has been rapidly evolving and
it will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
Today, it works as an institute of journalism, creative production, human rights advocacy, media freedom, and inclusive participation. With 70% under 35 years old, Kosovo has the youngest population in Europe. However the voice of young people in Kosovo is often underrepresented. Kosovo 2.0 calls itself an “independent voice for the voiceless”. By combining traditional and new media, they created a platform for Kosovo’s youth to become more informed and active and to challenge the status quo.
The meeting with the representatives of Kosovo 2.0 itself was very interesting. Before today, I had never heard of this organization before but I find it very inspiring that they are not afraid to take a stance and voice their opinions. All of this in order to change the discourse, in a country where so many share the feeling of being pawns in a political game and of not having a say in what is going on in their country. Kosovo 2.0 really aims to go beyond the mainstream headlines and discover how people’s daily lives are influenced.
Of course, as a magazine that challenges the status quo, Kosovo 2.0 faces a lot of criticism as well, mainly from conservative and religious groups. Despite this, Besa believes it’s vital that Kosovo protects its media’s fundamental right to freedom of expression, and strives to build a culture that encourages the discussion of issues relevant to young people as there is “little coverage of the issues and problems that young people are facing”.
This online version of Peace Lab managed to give me a totally different dimension to learning. It really highlighted the importance of learning about different perspectives to broaden one's horizons. Although our schedule was packed and intense from time to time, I will definitely miss our little online community and the daily meetings we had.
On behalf of the whole Peace Lab 2020 group, I would like to thank you for following our virtual journey through Kosovo.
Take care of yourself and yours,
Madeleine
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