In a joint statement issued on Friday, BIRN Kosovo and other civil society organisations announced they had established the Kosovar Coalition Against Disinformation with the aim of fighting propaganda and disinformation.

The purpose is to advocate and support initiatives that increase awareness and build the capacity of Kosovar society to deal with disinformation, and to create a culture in which decisions are based on accurate and complete information. 

The coalition is composed of BIRN Kosovo, I/KS, D4D, D+, KoSSev, Graçanica Online, and the NGO Roma in Action.

Executive Director of BIRN Kosovo Jeta Xharra, in a statement for Prishtina Insight, said the coalition will act as a “vaccine against disinformation” that is distributed via different channels.

“This coalition that is being established today is intended to function as a kind of a vaccine against the virus of disinformation, propaganda and untruth that is spreading very quickly and in so many information channels, including social networks,” Xharra declared.

She emphasized that they had decided to be strategic and create alliances with other civil society organisations and media that work in this field.

Xharra added that the founding  members have worked hard on establishing a foundation of values and principles for this coalition. The coalition would include many languages, not only that of the majority, she added.

“If those who distribute misinformation are organised, we must become organised and strategic as well, in order to stop the spread of misinformation. This cannot be done alone, but only by joining forces,” Xharra stated.

Tatjana Lazarevic from Kosovo Sever Portal, Kossev, said to Prishtina Insight that she expects this coalition to establish fairness, impartiality and accuracy. 

“My expectation is to jointly share the values of the Declaration; they are words for me, that means, words with meaning; I expect us to exercise our profession, not to serve politics or any PowerCenter. I expect us to spread fairness, impartiality, accuracy; to increase potentials of our professional community and media literacy, but also expectations and power of our public,” she stated.

Emrah Cermjani, from Roma in Action NGO, told Prishtina Insight that the coalition will strengthen accurate information and the advocacy of these organizations for the fight against fake news.

His own community has often been victims of this disinformation phenomenon, he said.

“We as a society advocate every day to increase awareness and build the capacities of Kosovar society to face the challenges of disinformation and build a society in which accurate, complete and timely information is the basis of information. 

“This coalition of organisations, in addition to jointly conveying this goal, will strengthen our advocacy even more, since almost every day we face fake news and many times as communities we have been victims of this phenomenon. I believe  we will achieve results,” Cermjani stated.

“The truth is the truth, the facts are the facts”, said the Swiss ambassador to Kosovo, Thomas Kolly.  “But the facts are becoming relative. The media has the obligation to tell the truth and we, the consumers, that are on the other side of this information line, have the right to get the truth,” he emphasized. 

“Today we got to this coalition which is a great idea”, said the ambassador, concluding that when nowadays facts are becoming relative, coalitions like this will get the truth back on track. 

This initiative aims to become a platform that channels and harnesses the energy of civil society, media and professionals who share common values in the fight against disinformation, including education, research, professional journalism, fact-checking, accurate reporting, research, monitoring and other civil society activities.

The article was edited on May 8, to add the quote of the Swiss Ambassador to Kosovo, which became available only after the publication of this article.