Kosovar investigative journalist assaulted in Pristina

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns an assault on Parim Olluri, the head of the respected investigative news website Insajderi.com, and calls on Kosovo’s authorities to shed all possible light on the attack.

Olluri was beaten by three men waiting for him outside his home in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, on the evening of 16 August. He said he thought the attack, in which he sustained minor injuries, was linked to his journalistic work.

He had just written an article about corruption among former Kosovo Liberation Army commanders that had triggered a wave of hate messages attacking and threatening him on social networks.

RSF urges authorities to quickly investigate these events and to bring those responsible for the threats and the violence to justice.

This is not the first time that Insajderi.com has been the target of harassment and intimidation. After it published wiretap transcripts last year revealing the central role played by the head of the former ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) in alleged corruption cases, it was prosecuted and several PDK officials-linked advertisers suddenly withdrew their ads from the website.

Kosovo is ranked 82nd out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2017 World Press Freedom Index.