Alpbach Talks – Falling Fences: Are there any Boundaries the Press Must Not Cross?

Jeta Xharra, is this years winner of the Dr. Erhard Busek SEEMO Award for Better Understanding in South East Europe. She was awarded the price for her work at the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN). In 2005 Xharra started as director of the network with only two other people. Now, a crew of 70 is producing TV-shows, the only English language newspaper "Pristina Insight" and the online investigative portal "Gazeta Jeta n Kosov". According to the SEEMO-jury her TV-show "Life in Kosovo" has pushed the boundaries of debate, holding authorities to account and opening discussion on previously-taboo subjects". The "Wiener Zeitung" talked to her about the future of journalism:

How far do you think journalism should push existing boundaries?

Looking at journalism in the developed world today, it seems quite a challenge just to make sure this profession does not corrupt itself with falsehood, distortion and propaganda. The tight deadlines journalists have to chase in an internet-driven world, the media dependency on dwindling business advertisements and the tendency not to check or double check information is a cancer. So, even without pushing the boundaries, whatever that means, journalism will be fine if it does what is supposed to do, tell the truth.

When did you decide you wanted to go into journalism?

I suppose most good journalism is rooted on some form of defiance, readiness to contend or resist authority, and mine matured in the 90s growing up in a Milosevic-militarily-ruled Kosovo. I went to a school in Pristina where in 1992 Albanian students like myself were kicked out and it became a school only for Serbian students. Similarly, my mother who had worked all her life lost her civil servant job because of her ethnicity. It became clear we were living in an apartheid type system. So when in 1998 the BBC crew came to Kosovo to cover the war, I was 19 and jumped on the opportunity to become a translator for them hoping that if I help the foreign cameras see what is going on in Kosovo, the world might do something about it.

Do you have any journalistic role models?

There are plenty of good role models out there from different national backgrounds and what they have in common is that they are good investigative journalists. My role models, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward from Washington Post, in 1974 forced US President Richard Nixon to resign. It is a fascinating idea to know that two reporters armed with nothing more than their pens and notebooks could bring down the most powerful man in the world because he was corrupt. The other role model comes from Russia. Anna Politkovskayas investigative articles about the war in Chechnya were remarkably brave. The current affairs program "Jeta n Kosov" I am anchoring is based very much on Western models of journalism I watched a lot of BBC Newsnight and was inspired by Jeremy Paxman, a journalist who persistently asked a British minister 12 times the same question because he was not getting an answer. Good journalism which means, well researched, trusted, non-compromised and with verified information is needed everywhere.

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Alpbach Talks - Falling Fences: Are there any Boundaries the Press Must Not Cross?