The turn that "KOHA Ditore" made in reporting the war

The liberation of Kosovo went hand in hand with the liberation of the media.

"KOHA Ditore" as a daily newspaper started its work in 1997, on the eve of the war, to quickly become the best witness of a dark period where the then president of the former Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, known by the media international as the "Butcher of the Balkans", began to massacre children, women and the elderly in Kosovo, after it had also wreaked havoc in Bosnia-Herzegovina. 

"KOHA Ditore" was the first and the only one at that time to oppose the single-mindedness of the propaganda. By releasing the news first, it became the first source of Albanians during the war and the main address of the world to be informed about what was really happening in Kosovo.

On March 4, 1998, the front page of the newspaper published the central photo of 24 corpses, civilians killed by Serbian forces, whose burial was attended by about 100 citizens. 

"Drenica buried 24 victims of the massacre" was the description that accompanied the photograph. And then another sentence: "Over 100 people crossed the obstacles put up by the Serbian Police to pay their last respects to the victims of the biggest massacre of this decade in Kosovo".

In the massacre of Likoshan and Qirezi, on February 28 and March 1, 1998, 24 inhabitants of these villages were killed and massacred, of which 10 belonged to the Ahmeti family.

But this massacre would remain the largest for only 72 hours after this burial.

In the massacre of Prekazi in Skenderaj, on March 5, 6 and 7, 1998, 59 Albanians were killed, of which 55 are from the neighborhood of Jashar. This was also documented by the newspaper "KOHA Ditore".

"Wide offensive of Serbian special units in Drenica, with artillery, helicopters and armored vehicles", "New police attack in Drenica, at least 20 Albanians killed". Further on the front page it was written: "The houses of the Jashari and Lushtaku families have been destroyed; Prekazi, Llausha, Polaci, Vojnika, Aqareva, Rezalla were attacked; Nearly 5 inhabitants of the villages, mostly women and children, fled from their homes with tractors in the direction of Vushtrri and Shipoli in Mitrovica.

The massacres continued.

Alban Bujari, photojournalist of KOĖA Ditore was at the very beginning of his career. But he would become one of the people who best documented what the government of Slobodan Milosevic was doing in Kosovo.
His shots, accompanied by the writings of the team of young journalists of "KOKHA Ditore" became references inside and outside the country for what is now considered the end of the liberation process.

"I hope that we, as journalists of KOHA Ditore, have fulfilled that mission. I don't know how to tell from the beginning that it was too early. Since 1997 when KOHA Ditore started working and I continued directly in the war. So I was completely inexperienced. But the experience was gained very quickly that we also worked with foreign journalists. It was an extraordinary team of young journalists at 'Kohë Ditore' which performed this task very professionally, considering that they were very young. Such as: Nebi Qena, Garentina Kraja, Ylber Bajraktari, Virtyt Gacaferi, Naser Miftari...don't forget anyone. The contribution has been extremely great, especially when the News Agency 'Arta' was created within the framework of 'Daily Time'. Until then, there are no news agencies to post pictures and news from massacres, fights, refugees. There are agencies like BBC and CNN behind, but Arta has come very close to it," he said. 

For a war photographer like Bujari, who has documented almost every massacre, it is difficult to choose one crime more atrocious than the other.

"They told you that a person became immune, but I lied to you. At first glance, it may seem that I am immune from serious images like people without a head, without a kidney, without a heart, without eyes... I am talking about Reçak. In burnt Prekaz, Rugovo i Hasi and beyond. They are very heavy. I don't want to wish them on anyone. It's normal to leave traumas, but you have to continue to live with them. They are all serious, but the worst I have experienced is Rugova e Hasi because I want to step on the blood of soldiers. We went there with Naser Miftari and Afrim Vitina. I think that they haven't known me since I was Albanian that they didn't leave me with a photographer. It is necessary to tread on the blood of soldiers. With that smell that you smell...," he declared.

At that time, Imer Mushkolaj had just started his journey in journalism. For him, "KOHA Ditore" made a big difference, setting a new standard in journalism, which would also change the direction of the liberation war.

"The release of KOŠA Ditore has brought not only a freshness, a new way of reporting, but it has been the main address of all media, foreign journalists, foreign diplomats. Even if we look at the front pages of Koha Ditore, you have a story about what happened in Kosovo, either with the murders, or with the massacres, or with the violence that was exercised at that time in Kosovo. I think that willy-nilly it has turned into a kind of institution then, in the way it reports the war", said Mushkolaj.

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The editorial office of "KOKHA Ditore" had also returned to the center, where foreign journalists found the greatest support, both for information, orientation and follow-up in different countries.

"At that time, the editorial office of KOĖA Ditore has also turned into a kind of embassy, ​​if we can put it that way, with foreign diplomats, with ambassadors so that they can receive information but also together with KOĖA journalists go to the field" , he added.

Photojournalist Bujari has often accompanied these teams.

"It was mainly the reason that I arrived at my destination safely, because in some countries they have had more privileges, such as with journalists from Guardian, New York Times, BBC and CNN. Koha Ditore has been a base for foreign journalists, it has been a media center", said Bujari.

The newspaper's reports were used by foreign diplomats in negotiations with the then Yugoslav government. On March 9, 1998, the US special emissary for Kosovo, Robert Gelbard, showed Slobodan Milosevic the photographs of the massacre in Prekaz, shot by "Koha Ditore". He was telling how his forces in the punitive campaign killed almost 60 Albanians in Prekaz, including 12 children, 13 women and five old men. The truth documented by the journalists and photojournalists of "Koha Ditore" from the heart of the war was taking shape.

Citizens remember well what this newspaper offered them in the country's most difficult time.
"Daytime was and will be. I'm saying it will be even though it isn't anymore. I have it in my memory because I grew up with it. Honestly, it was the main source even during the war. We also had inspiration there", said Skënder Nokaj.

KOHA Ditore, in addition to documenting every crime and massacre in Kosovo, did not stop working even during the NATO bombing of Serbian targets.

On March 20, 1999, the current president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, then Milosevic's Minister of Information, ordered the newspaper to be closed and fined. The newspaper did not back down. On the morning of March 24, "Koha Ditore", through an article on the front page, appealed to the largest military alliance in the world: "NATO Air Just do it". 

In the evening, the sky of Kosovo would be set ablaze by the bombs that, like never before in history, showed that the western and democratic world was on the side of the Albanians, in the name of humanitarian law. Work was being done in the newsroom under the echo of the bombs. But the newspaper was not published the next day because the offices of the newspaper were broken into by the Serbian police, who also killed the guard of the newspaper's editorial office, Rexhep Ramadani. The Serbian regime did not stop there, it burned the "KOHA Print" printing house to the ground.
The newspaper continued publication a month later from a small office in Tetovo, Macedonia, where the staff members, now refugees, gathered.

The freedom that the citizens were waiting for came.

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"As they told me... I'm sorry, I'm a little emotional. It was a great joy. Especially for children. The Irish and the Scots were with us at KFOR. I sometimes saw people there like mushrooms. I am surprised. I am surprised. I did not believe that there are people alive in Pristina. I thought they were all gone", stated Bedri Sadiku.

And with the freedom "Kohë Ditore" was waiting for a new mission.