COLUMN, KOVAČEVIĆ: Heroes of Kosovo and Metohija, Caught Between Vučić’s Hammer and Kurti’s Anvil!

I often hear people say that the remaining Serbian population in Kosovo and Metohija consists mostly of Vučić’s paid supporters and impoverished ordinary people blackmailed through their jobs, police records or any number of other means…

But things are not quite as people make them out to be.

There is one thing I know for certain… During the height of the brutal rule imposed by the ruling SNS’s criminal-political squads on one side and the police terror of the Albanian authorities on the other, three independent and objective media outlets were operating and reporting in Kosovo and Metohija. That was roughly the same number as in the rest of Serbia at the time.

These three media outlets managed, despite pressure and threats, to defend the honor of their profession and resist the epidemic of a disease that had already overcome the majority of Serbia over the past 14 years – the disease known as “taking the path of least resistance.” They did so while operating in an environment surrounded by Vučić’s paramilitary and criminal gangs and without any assistance from the Serbian state.

My dear colleagues endured harassment and intimidation, living and working between Vučić’s hammer and Kurti’s anvil. They conquered their fears, stood their ground until the very end, and remained free and independent.

Let it be recorded here: these are the editorial teams of the Kossev, Radio Goraždevac and Zubin Potok Info media outlets.

You may have heard of them, or perhaps you haven’t, but you should certainly take the time to learn about them and listen to what they write and report from the sacred Serbian land – a land they refused to sell in exchange for a little power and money, unlike some others we all know.

Their editors and journalists were a light at the end of the tunnel, a reliable source of information and an escape from the media madness coming out of Belgrade.

I want to use this opportunity to publicly congratulate them on their courage and fearlessness, particularly considering that it was much, much easier to be independent in Belgrade than in Kosovska Mitrovica, Leposavić or Zubin Potok.

There is no need to explain why, because everyone already knows that very well.

I wish my respected colleagues many more years of defending the dignity and honor of free journalism in Kosovo and Metohija, until that land itself becomes free once again!