Coverage of employment policies a challenge for the media

Prishtina, 23 January 2018 – Lëvizja FOL held today an open discussion on the topic “Media Access to Covering Employment Policies”, where the invited were media representatives in Kosovo.

Jeton Zulfaj, from Lëvizja FOL said that the purpose of this round table is to discuss media access to employment policy coverage. How do the media report on the topic of employment and how attractive is this topic – does this topic generate revenue for the media?

Meanwhile, Gresa Smolica from FOL presented the findings of the Lëvizja FOL report on this topic. “The report has analyzed media coverage of policy discussions on employment by focusing on youth employment. From media monitoring we noticed that thousands of articles that are produced only a few dozen are related to the employment issue, “said Smolica.

Dren Selimi from the EYE project – said that the measurementsmshow that media production mainly focuses on news and showbiz, and not on employment issues. “Written newspapers cover much more employment topics than portals,” Selimi said.

Visar Prebreza editor at Kallxo.com, said that he does not believe that employment topics will enter the top 100 ever-clicked news. “We should not fight how to put 100, but we have to fight how to make the best quality writings,” he said, adding that the issue of employment relates to broader topics. Prebreza said that more media should be monitored that they produce.

Bekim Kupina, editor of the Koha Ditore newspaper, said the news that talk on employment or unemployment cannot be attractive news. “The media do not contest who is presenting more news on employment. There is no room for daily employment news. If news is published that a company has employed some people this can be considered as marketing for that company. What is the dividing line between public interest and marketing? “Said Kupina, adding that nepotism, corruption, conflict of interest, competitions all relate to employment. “Employment has great problems, especially because of nepotism. Employment statistics are also big in relation to media reporting, “he said.

Enis Veliu, editor at the newspaper Zeri said that the public’s interest is not employment. “Re-enactment of young people is done in a very secretive way. Employment interest is, for example, as Xhafer Tahiri or Fatmir Limaj have employed close persons, it has become a practice that is happening through contracts on act so some individuals are occupying positions, “Veliu said, adding that employment is constantly written, but dominate new are about political employment.

Blerim Xhemajli, editor at Klan Kosova, said the reports that appear on the TV remain more in mind than the written ones. “We had a kind of concentration on social problems, with the simple problems of people. The biggest problems are the problems of political employment. “The media do not have the budget to have profiled journalists for just one area. Our business is informing citizens, “Xhemajli said.

Adrian Çollaku, editor-in-chief of Gazeta Blic, said that on the portal citizens read the ones they like, not the ones that are written there. “In the public opinion, the imposition of topics is mostly the Government, eg. in any government meeting has not been discussed on employment issues, nor in the Assembly. Without theming themes, these topics will remain in the shadows and we will deal with statistics, “said Çollaku, adding that if they talk about special court, nobody remembers the employment issues.

Arben Ahmeti from TV Dukagjini said that no portal can be held responsible for why it posts showbiz news, because this is a way of people’s interest. “People read what you care about. I can find thousands of articles that have talked about the well-being at work, but we cannot help to measure what difference they have made, “Ahmeti said.