Type | Daily newspaper |
---|---|
Format | Berliner |
Owner(s) | Koha Group |
Publisher | Flaka Surroi |
Staff writers | 37 |
Founded | 1997 |
Headquarters | Pristina |
Circulation | 10,665 Daily |
Website | Official website |
Koha Ditore (trans. Daily Time) is the leading daily newspaper in Kosovo. It is published by Koha Group and was founded and owned by politician Veton Surroi. His sister Flaka Surroi is now the publisher, following Veton Surroi's launch of his political career within the ORA reformist party. The newspaper initially published as a weekly magazine Koha, that ran from 1992 to 1994, becoming a leading weekly magazine in Kosovo. The initial team included new generation of opinion-makers such as Ylber Hysa, Baton Haxhiu, Dukagjin Gorani, Eqrem Basha, Shkelzen Maliqi, etc. The newspaper with the same name was published for the first time in 1997. Its current editor in chief is Agron Bajrami.
On Saturday, March 31, 2007, Koha Ditore distributed a free jubilee edition celebrating 10 years since its first issue. In all opinion polls conducted in Kosovo since 1999, Koha Ditore resulted as the most read newspaper. According to the last poll conducted in February 2008, Koha Ditore is read by 30% of Kosovo readers, 13% more than the second most read newspaper.
The newspaper is generally considered independent, however issues of conflict of interest were raised when the founder of the newspaper Veton Surroi entered local politics in Kosovo.
In 2012, US Ambassador to Kosovo, Christopher Dell, accused the newspaper of promoting the political aspirations of Veton Surroi. Dell referred to events in early 2011 when Kosovo did not have any president and Surroi, a long-time friend of the ambassador, was in talks with Kosovo's Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, and Dell to be proposed as Kosovo's new president. According to Dell, during these time the newspaper that usually has been a fierce critic of the Thaci-government, quit criticizing the government. When the plans changed and Behgjet Pacolli was elected president, the newspaper launched a series of articles against both the ambassador and Pacolli. Among other things Koha Ditore published pictures of SMS-messages taken during the parliamentary session when the president was elected showing that Dell was influencing the election of the president. Dell claimed media was violating his privacy while Koha Ditore claimed the ambassador wanted to censor them and limit freedom of speech. Surroi has confirmed he was positive when asked if he wanted to be president but has accused Dell of exaggerating and spreading rumours when describing the events. Koha Ditore has answered that the newspaper is not edited by Veton Surroi but by his sister Flaka Surroi, and that the newspaper was doing its job when they published the SMS-messages. [1] [2] [3]
The president of the Republic of Kosovo, is the head of state and chief representative of the Republic of Kosovo in the country and abroad.
The politics of Kosovo takes place in a framework of a multi-party parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the President (Presidenti) is the head of state and the Prime Minister (Kryeministri) the head of government. Parliamentary elections are held every four years, the most recent in 2021.
Veton Surroi is a Kosovar Albanian publicist, politician and former journalist. Surroi is the founder and former leader of the ORA political party, and was a member of Kosovo assembly from 2004 to 2008.
Hashim Thaçi is a Kosovar Albanian politician who was the president of Kosovo from April 2016 until his resignation on 5 November 2020 to face a war crimes tribunal on charges of crimes against humanity. He was the first prime minister of Kosovo and the Foreign minister and deputy prime minister in the new cabinet led by Isa Mustafa, which assumed office on 12 December 2014.
New Kosovo Alliance is a liberal political party in Kosovo. The party was founded on 3 May 2006, by Behgjet Pacolli.
Fadil Hoxha was a Yugoslavian ethnic-Albanian communist revolutionary and politician from Kosovo. He was a member of the Communist Party and fought in the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II. After the war, he was the first President of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Region of Kosovo and Metohija (1945–1963) and later member of the Presidency of Yugoslavia (1974–1984).
Kohavision is a Kosovan free-to-air television channel launched on September 21, 2000. It was founded by politician and journalist Veton Surroi as part of KOHA Group, a media house currently led by Flaka Surroi. Its programming is centered towards news, with Koha e Lajmeve being the most watched news edition in the country. The broadcaster shares its press staff with the Koha Ditore, a daily newspaper. Kohavision also runs Arta News, a 24-hour news and documentary channel. In October 2, 2024 the official YouTube channel of this television got terminated.
Dritan Hoxha was an Albanian businessman. He was the founder of Top Media, Albania's largest media company.
Behgjet Isa Pacolli (Gheg Albanian:[bɛhˈɟɛtpaˈtsoɫi]; Serbo-Croatian Latin: Behđet Isa Pacoli; is a Kosovar Albanian politician and businessman who served as the first deputy prime minister of Kosovo and minister of foreign affairs from 2017 to 2019 under the Ramush Haradinaj government. Pacolli is a former president of Kosovo, and served as the first deputy prime minister of Kosovo between 2011 and 2014. Pacolli was one of the signatories of the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence.
Albanian comics, though not well known internationally, were produced mainly by comic-authors from Kosovo. Until recently there was no comic tradition in Albania where comics were seen as junk literature known as fumeti supposedly because pop art was prohibited by the dictatorial communist regime. Today there is one comic magazine published in Kosovo called Leon, and there is Tafë Kusuri comic-strip together with Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes published by Koha Ditore newspaper.
Baton Haxhiu is a Kosovo Albanian columnist and journalist who has worked for media such as Koha Ditore, Gazeta Express, Klan Kosova and ABC News Albania. He now works for Euronews Albania and is the general director of Albanian Post.
Flaka Surroi is a notable Kosovo-Albanian publisher. She comes from the family of Kosovo politician and diplomat Rexhai Surroi, and is a sibling of Veton Surroi, a Kosovan politician. She finished her high school in Mexico, where her father was serving as an ambassador, and graduated at University of Pristina.
Parliamentary elections were held in Kosovo on 12 December 2010, following a vote of no-confidence in the government that brought forward the election. Those were the first elections after the country declared independence.
Agron Bajrami is the editor of and a writer for Koha Ditore newspaper, the largest daily newspaper in Kosovo. He filled various journalistic and editing positions at the newspaper since its establishment in 1997, and took over as editor in chief in September 2004 after its former editor and publisher, Veton Surroi, departed for politics. Bajrami is also a member of the board of South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), head of the Kosovo Media Institute, and a regular columnist for Montenegrin daily newspaper Vijesti. Agron Bajrami has a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Pristina. He speaks several languages, including: Albanian, English, Serbian and German.
The mass media in Kosovo consists of different kinds of communicative media such as radio, television, newspapers, and internet web sites. Most of the media survive from advertising and subscriptions.
Arbana Xharra is a Kosovar Albanian investigative journalist. She has won numerous awards for her reporting and was a 2015 recipient of the International Women of Courage Award from the US State Department.
The parliament of Kosovo held indirect elections for president of Kosovo on 3 and 4 April 2021. The elections successfully concluded after three rounds, with Vjosa Osmani winning 71 votes out of a total possible 120. Three political parties boycotted the vote. Nasuf Bejta, also a member of Guxo, the political party Osmani founded, was the only other candidate who received a vote during any of the other rounds.
Kosovo–Venezuela relations are foreign relations between Kosovo and Venezuela. Formal diplomatic relations between two states are non-existent as Venezuela does not recognize Kosovo as a sovereign state.
Teuta Sahatqija is a politician and diplomat in Kosovo. She has served three terms in the Assembly of Kosovo, initially with the Reformist Party ORA, which she led from 2008 to 2010, and later with the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK). She was Consul General for the Republic of Kosovo in New York City from 2016 to 2020.