Kosovo Urged to Protect Journalist after Death Threats

International media freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders on Wednesday called on the Kosovo authorities to protect Leonard Kerquki, editor-in-chief of tabloid newspaper Gazeta Express, after a television documentary he produced about crimes against Serbs attracted a series of death threats.

"We condemn this public lynching of Leonard Kerquki and we call on the authorities to quickly adopt measures to protect this journalist and his colleagues," Reporters Without Borders programme director Lucie Morillon said in a statement.

"We also call for an investigation with the aim of identifying those responsible for these threats and bringing them to trial," Morillon added.

The latest edition of Kerquki's Zona Express programme, broadcast on October 23, addressed crimes against the Kosovo Serb population and the role played in them by former Kosovo Liberation Army members.

"The day after it was screened, a photomontage of Kerquki with his forehead riddled by bullet holes in Serbian colours was posted on the Facebook page of the Kosovo Liberation Army," Reporters Without Borders said.

The OSCE mission in Kosovo and the Association of Journalists of Kosovo also condemned the threats against Kerquki.

"Freedom of expression must be upheld and respected in all circumstances," Jan Braathu, the head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, said on Tuesday.

The Association of Journalists of Kosovo said that it was "intolerable" that Kerquki and others working on the programme had received "hundreds" of death threats after the broadcast of the weekly show.

However, a day after broadcasting the show, Kerquki's newspaper Gazeta Express apologised to MP and former Kosovo Liberation Army commander Fatmir Limaj and his...