unljnews

By NICOL WOODY
J Alumni News staff

File photo: Professor Scott Winter teaches at KIJAC

Ten years ago, Kosovo was in the news every day. Today, many people have probably forgotten about the conflict that ripped the Balkans apart in the late 1990s.

But two J school faculty members have thought frequently about this small country. Barney McCoy and Scott Winter have traveled to Kosovo multiple times to teach students at the Kosovo Institute of Journalism and Communication, known as KIJAC.

Naser Miftari, a 35-year-old Ph.D student at UNL, also has taught students at KIJAC. Before moving to Lincoln, Miftari was a reporter and editor from 1997 to 2006 at Koha Ditore (Daily Time), the largest independent newspaper in the country.

Kosovo is in the process of change. A new democracy, a new kind of journalism and efforts to repair ethnic and race relations are just a few of those changes.

McCoy said he has seen attitudes shift since his first visit to Kosovo in 2006. Before Kosovo officially declared its independence in 2008, “there was a lot of anxiety and hope that Kosovo would become a democracy and free standing country,” he recalled.

When McCoy returned to the country the same year, he encountered an air of freedom and exuberant emotion.

“At that point, there was a tremendous amount of hope and euphoria that the people of Kosovo finally had control of their destiny as a people and a nation,” he said.

File photo: Professor Barney McCoy teaches at KIJAC

When he returned to Kosovo in March 2010, McCoy noticed yet another shift.

“Some of the jaded attitudes have crept back into the picture (with regard to their government) because the new administration hasn’t done the things that many people expected or had hoped they would do,” he said.  “Sometimes you wonder if the expectations were too high and if anybody could meet those expectations, but they have great challenges.”

Memories still influence journalists

McCoy said Kosovar journalists still sometimes face the challenge of self-censorship. Some journalists remember not so long ago when they were threatened by mobs in a war-torn country.

“The greatest temptation when worried about retribution is to censor yourself, and that’s also the most effective form of censorship,” he said.

McCoy believes the people of Kosovo truly understand what a democracy is and how a free press should operate, but there is more to it than just understanding the concept.

“Understanding and making a democracy function are two very different things, and that’s the process that is still unfolding over there,” he said.  “It takes time.”

Media continue to struggle for freedom

Although the country has gained independence, Winter agrees that media outlets have not gained much freedom.

“Some are owned by the government, which can work, but even the independent media outlets (particularly the newspapers), are so dependent on the government for advertising,” he said. “The economy is so shot there that the only advertising revenue is through businesses and NGOs (non-government organizations) that are funded through the government.

“If the government doesn’t like your newspaper, they can pull funding, and you’ll be out of business.”

Kosovar journalists are learning how to cover news in a democracy, Winter said, “but there are too many obstacles right now, whether it’s government pressure through advertising or direct government pressure.  But I think they get it. They know what they want and are trying to get there.”

Women play a new role in Kosovo

Women’s role in Kosovo is also changing, Winter noted. In the past, few women had both children and careers. Today, though, many women are getting into journalism because they can see how important it is to their nation’s future, Winter said.

“They understand this is an opportunity to reshape history.  They’re just out of a civil war, they’re trying to build their economy, they’re trying to build their government.

“Journalism is one way they can make a difference in their country.”

McCoy said he also observed other differences on his most recent trip. He did not hear as many howling dogs in the streets at night nor did he see any armored personnel carriers with 30-caliber machine guns. The euro is now the currency of Kosovo, except in many Serbian villages. Infrastructure is improving, and some highway projects are underway. But the electrical grid still fails at random times and fairly often, McCoy said.

This fall McCoy hopes to finish a documentary focusing on where Kosovo was two years ago and where the country is today. The documentary examines the challenges and expectations for the country going forward.

Working toward a plurality of opinion

Miftari said he and his colleagues at the newspaper in Kosovo always wanted to get the story right. The paper exposed misdeeds not only by Serbians but also by local Albanians, and this didn’t always go over well in the society.

“What we hoped to achieve was plurality of opinion within society so that society doesn’t think all Serbs are bad or all Albanians are good,” he said.  “We wanted to remove those stereotypes.”

Miftari knows a lot has changed Kosovo since 1997 when he started reporting.

“Society itself has been more democratic and more accepting of different norms and cultures,” he said. “It strives toward multi-ethnicity. There were terrible crimes committed against Serbs right after the conflict, but that has changed.  For at least three years there haven’t been any serious incidents involving minorities.”

On his last trip, McCoy had an encounter that also speaks of progress. He visited a Serbian village in southern Kosovo where, a year ago, there had been rioting. He was accompanied to the village by an Albanian photographer, a Serbian interpreter and Tim Collins, a Bellevue, Neb., native who has lived in Kosovo for much of the past 10 years.

“We’re driving down the street, and all of a sudden a car comes speeding up the street and slams on the brakes,” McCoy said.

At this point McCoy wondered what was about to happen.

“A guy jumps out of his car and yells, ‘Tim Collins!’” McCoy said.

“Tim had lived in this village five years ago and used to coach the Serbian kids’ basketball team. The young man yelling at Collins had been one of his former basketball players. That’s a pretty good breakthrough.

“It’s (times like these) when you begin to understand that the dynamic isn’t the color of your skin or your nationality, but it’s how do you relate to people and how do you trust them? How do you learn to communicate on the commonalities that you share, as opposed to saying, ‘These are our differences.’”

Learning to know the Kosovars

Winter has been to Kosovo four times, one of those times as part of a student trip also taught by photojournalism teacher Bruce Thorson.

“My visits to Kosovo have been the best part of my professional career,” he said.

Winter admires the strength and character of the Kosovar people who’ve withstood so much.

“It’s obvious to me with what I see in the coffee shops, what I see in the bars, what I see from these people when they are working or unemployed, eating or anytime, is that they are savoring every day,” he said.

“Even being 10 years out of a civil war and the fact they have 44 percent unemployment and incredible corruption in their government, they (know they) can survive that. They’ve had worse. I could definitely embrace that attitude toward life.”

Winter said he hopes international connections will continue to be important for students at UNL.

“Every year it’s more and more clear to me that our students need to have more diversity and more of a global experience at UNL,” he said. “I think our global approach to media is really important, and I hope it continues.”

The benefits of a school of journalism in his country are evident to Miftari. He is glad his colleagues around the world are assisting with the journalism school during this period of change in Kosovo. Norway’s Gimlekollen School of Journalism and Communication sponsors the Nebraska-KIJAC connection, with in-kind contributions from UNL.

“This is precisely what one should shoot for in terms of long-term investment in journalism,” he said.

Miftari believes that the international connections benefit the society as a whole as they shed light on critical issues in Kosovo. This investment will in turn help Kosovo become more of a functioning democratic nation as it continues to evolve.