Decision of Press Council of Kosovo on the complaint of KOHA Group and Surroi family against news portal www.gazetaexpress.com

30th of May 2013, Pristina
Ref: 16.04.2013\153-2013
Decision of Press Council of Kosovo on the complaint of KOHA Group and Surroi family against news portal www.gazetaexpress.com
Press Council of Kosovo, on its regular meeting held on 28th of May 2013, after reviewing the complaint of KOHA Group and Surroi family against news portal “Express” in relation to four articles published between 2nd and 6th of April 2013, took this:
D E C I S I O N
– Complaint upheld
J U S T I F I C A T I O N
KOHA Group, with its headquarters in Pristina, and Surroi family filed a complaint on 16th of April 2013 against news portal www.gazetaexpress.com in relation to following articles: “Time for ransom” published on 2nd of April 2013; “Surroi hogs”, published on 4th of April 2013; “Flaka, when you asked for ransom from IPKO, who did you address as the director” published on 5th of April 2013; and the article entitled: “Chronology of an attempted ransom” published on 6th of April 2013.
The complainant claims that the aforementioned articles contain offense and defamation. The complainant also claims that the news portal www.gazetaexpress.com has violated the right to reply according to Press Code of Kosovo.
PCK Board heard the representative of news portal www.gazetaexpress.com and after reviewing the arguments of the complaint found that the complaint is to be upheld.
PCK found that the language used in the articles contains unfounded classifications such as “Hogs” “Ransom seeker”, “clan”, etc. in order to incite hatred, which is the violation of Chapter III of Press Code of Kosovo (Incitement and Hate Speech) of Press Code of Kosovo.
News portal www.gazetaexpress.com did not offer the complainant to present its viewpoints in relation to the articles published by this portal. In this way the portal violated Chapter IV of Press Code of Kosovo (The Right to Reply).
Press Council of Kosovo also found that in “readers’ comments” section of this portal, there are expressions of incitement and hate speech against KOHA group and Surroi family, which implies that the editors did not comply with the rules of Guidelines of Press Code of Kosovo asking to clear the comments from libel and unacceptable language.
In the end, Press Council of Kosovo found that it is not in its mandate to review business relationship between KOHA Group and IPCO Company, and therefore does not take a decision on this part of the complaint.
Based on the factual situation established above, the Board of Press Council of Kosovo decided as outlined in the enactment clause of this Decision.