UN: UN agencies in Kosovo violating equal language rights

The Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS) is raising serious concerns about the consistent marginalization of the Serbian language in the communications of international organizations operating in Kosovo. Our latest appeal to UNICEF highlights a pattern of neglect, where content is readily available in Albanian but conspicuously absent in Serbian on platforms like Instagram. This is not an isolated incident; UNS issued a similar warning just two months ago, indicating a persistent disregard for equal language rights.

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this is not the first time it has observed UNICEF omitting Serbian-language posts from its social media pages.

Our protest against UNMIK's media bulletin further illustrates this troubling trend. For years, UNMIK provided a balanced representation of media reports in both Serbian and Albanian. However, since November 28 last year, the bulletin has increasingly favored Albanian sources, effectively sidelining Serbian media. When UNS formally protested this shift, demanding an explanation, UNMIK's response was silence, followed by the complete discontinuation of the bulletin. This lack of transparency and accountability is deeply concerning.

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it shatters a delicate balance built over the past two decades and compromises impartial reporting.

These actions by international bodies, coupled with the ongoing restrictions on Serbian daily newspapers by Kosovo authorities over the past three years, create an increasingly hostile environment for Serbian-language journalists. UNS views these mounting obstacles as unacceptable. They not only violate Kosovo's own Law on the Use of Languages but also infringe upon fundamental rights to information guaranteed by international conventions. From our perspective in Serbia, this situation reflects a broader challenge in ensuring that minority language rights are respected and that all communities have equitable access to information, especially in sensitive post-conflict environments.

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these practices not only violate the Law on the Use of Languages but also infringe upon the right to information guaranteed by international conventions.