The story went viral quickly and was republished by almost countless news portals, media and social media pages, so that now it is still impossible to determine which media initiated the report.

As a result of the frenzy, in which none of the media organisations seemed to bother to check the accuracy and source of the story, the woman was identified and attacked in two towns, Lipjan and Ferizaj.

In Lipjan, she was recognized her from the published photos and two youngsters – apparently incited by social media posts – attacked her. They later boasted on social networks of having beaten a “child kidnapper”.

The attack was recorded by a bystander. The video published on media and social networks showed that no one tried to protect the woman.

Two years later, the woman whose name is not being published, to protect her privacy and safety, is still suffering the physical and mental consequences of her ordeal.

Her case is also being debated by journalists and media and human rights experts as one of the best – or worst – examples of the human price of fake news in Kosovo.

The woman was attacked soon after she returned to Kosovo from another European country, recalls Muharrem Asllani, from the Voice of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians, an NGO that assists these minority communities.

At that time, the organisation tried to help find her a shelter in her birthplace of Podujeva. Today she lives in Prizren in a rented apartment paid for by this NGO.

Appeals for justice and compensation go unheard

Imer Mushkolaj – Executive Director of the Press Council of Kosovo. Photo: Agon Sinanaj

Asllani said that although she repeatedly sought psychological assistance from local institutions, her demands fell on deaf ears.

“She was not compensated either for her physical damages, or for the emotional or psychological damage,” Asllani told BIRN.

This was not the first time that members of the Roma, Ashkalia and Egyptian minorities become targets of fake news, largely due to the prejudice these communities face in Kosovo, Asllani added.

To make the situation worse, this clear case of fake news was never reported to the Kosovo Press Council, Imer Mushkolaj, the executive director of the Press Council, said.

It is the only organisation besides courts to which citizens can complain if their rights are violated by any member organisations of the Press Council.

The council receives dozens of complaints about the media a month, but lacks the human and financial resources to deal with all of them. Only when a person complains directly to it does this become the subject of a Press Council probe.

Mushkolaj said that after the 2019 attack on the Roma woman, the Press Council met representatives of Roma NGOs and encouraged them to submit a complaint.

“But, besides expressing verbal readiness for that, no complaint was filed at the Press Council,” he told BIRN.

Mushkolaj warns that the Council has no mandate to deal with the content of texts published in the media or on social networks. After receiving a complaint, it can only issue a recommendation, which the victim may use if they bring the case to a court.

However, victims can also submit a case directly to a court, without appealing first to the Council.

Courts treat such cases as civil lawsuits, deciding on possible financial compensation. Courts can also order the media to remove the article in question.

None of the NGOs involved in this case were aware whether anyone had tried the second legal option – to appeal directly to a court.

Code needs updating to address fake news

The Press Council functions on the basis of its Code of Ethics. But this does not specifically cover fake news, violence that the media can incite and other forms of emotional abuse that have arisen in the digital era.

None of the 12 articles of the code mentions the term “fake news” or the consequences of spreading fake news.

But a new initiative has arisen to alter the code, to cover this issue.

Florent Spahija, a legal expert working for the Press Council, says the practice of bullying in the media stems, among other things, from weak regulations in the Council’s code.

He told BIRN that an initiative to amend the document is underway, adding that key improvements are needed to allow this body to address the changes that have occurred in the media in the new digital era.

According to Spahia, the changes currently being debated should include specific regulation for fake news, hate speech in the media and media enticements to violence.

Due to the lack of specific tools within the present Code of Ethics, according to him, complaints about these matters are currently treated under article III of the code, dealing with hateful language.

Poor regulation worsens fake news boom in Kosovo

Shkelzen Osmani – Editor-in-Chief and founder of Hibrid.info. Photo: Hibrid.info

Experts say that the whole world is facing the phenomenon of fake news, and Kosovo is no different.

What further complicates the situation in Kosovo is both poor legal regulations and a very overcrowded media scene, with some 500 news portals registered in addition to mainstream media.

Human rights organizations and fact-checking NGOs say there are hundreds of cases like the one of the Roma woman attacked in 2019; in most cases victims receive no protection or justice.

BIRN contacted Kosovo police about the number of reports of fake news and what measures they have taken, but the police offered only a generalized answer without concrete statistics.

They also failed to say whether they took any measures about the Roma woman attacked in 2019 – despite the fact that police identified the young men who attacked her and pledged to take action against them.

Across Kosovo, only two platforms focus on detecting fake news, both members of the International Fact Checking Network.

One is Hibrid.info which has listed a number of pages that launch fake news.

Shkezen Osmani, its editor and founder, says that they use a number of criteria to identify fake news.

One is media organizations that fail to display even basic information about themselves on their websites. They are listed as dubious, and Hibrid keeps an eye on them, Osmani told BIRN.

“Most of these dubious sites take no responsibility for the articles they write and are not registered as businesses or non-governmental organisations,” he noted.

“They are also not members of the Press Council and are thus dubious portals that pretend to be media,” he added.

According to Osmani, there are usually one of three motives behind fake news: financial profit, by increasing traffic with sensational “news”; a local political agenda, especially during election campaigns; and a foreign actor’s influence.

Thin line between media regulation and censorship

Osmani believes stronger regulation of the media is needed in Kosovo. But he also says a thin line separates stronger media regulation and censorship, especially in fragile democracies such as Kosovo where power can be used to control media.

Other actors see other alternatives for tackling the challenge of the fake news.

Alban Zeneli, professor at the Faculty of Journalism in the University of Prishtina, says better media literacy helps consumers spot fake news.

He and his colleagues at the department of journalism started a campaign in 2009 to include media literacy in the education curriculum, and since then more than 2,000 teachers have been trained by them in media literacy.

“Lately, we took another step forward and included fake news as a real problem and as a special course,” he told BIRN.

Countries with weak educational systems are fertile ground for the launch and spread of fake news.

Besides better regulation of the media landscape and more media literacy, journalists working in the field should ask one fundamental question, he says: “What is our responsibility as journalists in the digital era – and should we submit to the dictatorship of launching fast news, which is being imposed by the digital media?”