Vetevendosje, which has been in power since 2021 and is seeking re-election at parliamentary polls on February 9, has not publicly stated its reason for not participating in the debates on the three channels. It is not yet clear whether the party will participate in debates on any other channels.

Jeta Xharra, the director of BIRN Kosovo, who hosts Internews Kosova’s TV programme ‘Debat Pernime’ on TV Dukagjini, said at the start of her electoral debate programme on Saturday that Vetevendosje had decided not to participate because it claimed the station was run by oligarchs.

Xharra said that Vetevendosje was “following the old tradition of parties that were voluble and accessible while in opposition yet became closed-off and unaccountable inside the plush offices of power”.

She pointed out that BIRN Kosovo’s debate programme was “thrown out by the public broadcaster RTK, where we were broadcast for 15 years, because we published an investigation that exposed oligarchs, so to boycott our debates under that pretext is false”.

The European Centre for Press Media and Freedom and 13 other media freedom organisations from the region have called for Vetevendosje’s decision to be reversed.

“By boycotting mainstream TV channels, the public’s right to information and the essential role of journalists in promoting transparency and accountability is undermined,” they said in an open letter to Prime Minister Albim Kurti on Friday, alleging that under four years of Kurti’s Vetevendosje-led government, media freedom had deteriorated.

The Association of Journalists of Kosovo, AJK, expressed concern over “the warning of a boycott of some of the main television stations in the country, such as Klan Kosova, TV Dukagjini and T7, by the ruling party.

“It is imperative that the media be allowed to equally present the programmes of all political entities running for office, as their work serves the public interest. The announced boycott constitutes a deliberate attack on media pluralism – a cornerstone of Kosovo’s democracy – and is part of an ongoing series of actions by this government and the Vetevendosje Movement targeting journalists and media organisations,” the AJK said in a statement on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Leonard Kerquki, director of T7, announced on Facebook that “officials from Vetevendosje informed me that they will not participate in T7 TV programmes during the election campaign. I cannot share the reason why because I did not understand it. For me, this is not a boycott, but an escape from a confrontation over [its] four-year governance.”

BIRN approached Vetevendosje’s spokesperson for comment but received no reply by the time of publication.