Activists are calling for legal action after ‘Big Brother VIP Kosovo’, a reality TV show aired by Kosovo broadcaster Klan Kosova, on Monday introduced a new contestant who has been charged with domestic violence.

The new contestant, Atilla Kardesh, is the former husband of singer and beauty pageant winner Drenusha Latifi, who made the domestic violence accusations against him.

Kardesh has denied the allegations.

Presenters of the TV show and Klan Kosova suggested that introducing such a contestant to the house in which the contestants are filmed was an interesting development, but human rights activists and members of the public slated what they called the deliberate promotion of domestic violence.

Latifi was asked to confront her ex-husband alone within the house, where she called him a “physical abuser” and accused him of also abusing his first wife. Later, she was shown crying while presenters asked her if she “would consider collaborating with him for the sake of the children”.

Flutura Kusari, a media rights lawyer, on Facebook on Tuesday said that she had filed a complaint against ‘Big Brother VIP Kosova’ and Klan Kosova to the Independent Media Commission, IMC.

“Freedom of speech and freedom of media are not absolutes. These rights and freedoms come with responsibility and it is the responsibility of Klan Kosova TV channel to exercise these rights by broadcasting material in accordance ethical and legal norms,” Kusari wrote.

She said that she had asked the IMC to issue the highest fine the law provides for – 100,000 euros.

On Tuesday, the National Coordinator and Inter-ministerial Group Against Domestic Violence, Gender-Based Violence and Violence Against Women, a governmental body, condemned Klan Kosova’s decision to bring Atilla Kardesh into the show.

It declared that the decision “aims to minimise and normalise a dangerous phenomenon that our society is facing, such as domestic violence” and called for Kardesh to be removed from the show immediately. It also called for the IMC to take measures against Klan Kosova.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Centre for Information, Criticism and Action, a civil rights organisation, held a protest in the Klan Kosova building.

“’Big Brother VIP Kosova’ should be shut down immediately! This programme promotes repeated examples of violence, sexual harassment and extremely sexist and homophobic discussions,” the organisation wrote on Facebook.

In response, Klan Kosova condemned what it called a “hooligan attack”. “A vehicle where four women were located entered the space of the television [building] from where dangerous tools were thrown … which risked … seriously endangering the lives of all the workers,” the TV station said.

BIRN contacted Klan Kosova and the IMC for a comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Kosovo’s biggest women’s rights organisation, the Kosovo Women’s Network, said that the show “contradicts our joint efforts to fight gender-based violence, a widespread phenomenon that affects the well-being of women and girls in our society”.

At around midnight on Monday, an activist group, the Collective for Feminist Thought and Action, protested by writing graffiti on the Klan Kosova building: “KLAN abuses women; Boycott KLAN; Abusers Out”, the graffiti said.

The Basic Court of Prishtina told BIRN in March this year that it had not approved a request to detain Kardesh for domestic violence, deeming that a protection order not to approach Latifi was sufficient. The court confirmed it had received an indictment charging him with domestic violence.

In August 2023, Amnesty International concluded that despite demands for Kosovo authorities to take action against domestic violence, authorities continue to fail victims. The report concluded that a narrow focus on prosecutions left too many domestic violence victims struggling to access justice and support when leaving abusive situations.

In May 2023, BIRN reported that a lack of financial independence or support from family and society means many women in Kosovo who try to flee domestic violence end up returning to abusive husbands.