January 22, 2025 | Wednesday
By: Leonora Aliu
Housed in the formerly widely known as the “Gërmia” Department Store situated in the Skandërbeg Square in Pristina, the unique “Reporting House” was opened in Pristina in June 2024. The museum’s mission is to recount the country’s contemporary history by covering events from 1989 to the end of 1999, spanning from peaceful resistance to armed struggle, culminating in Kosovo’s liberation. The museum widely covers the violation of human rights in Kosovo throughout the nineties.
The project was initiated by Jeta Xharra, Executive Director of BIRN Kosovo, a renowned journalist and the museum’s producer. Drawing from her experience reporting on the war for BBC (1997–1999), when she worked as a “fixer” and later local producer, Xharra led the effort to digitize 30 hours of international media coverage on Kosovo.
Speaking to the Europe House Kosovo, she said: “Twenty-five years after the war, it’s time to pack the nineties into a museum and not keep living in them. It is also time to create a common, balanced and inclusive narrative about what happened and what better way to do it than through what international media reported in this era. It is also important to preserve the memory of the civilians struggle and civilian resistance that is embedded in our culture. Our country has been lacking a modern museum, which, without pathos, commemorates the contributions of the civilian population to the freedom Kosovo enjoys today.”
Marking a quarter-century since the war’s end, the curated exhibition at Reporting House offers both local and international audiences an in-depth reflection on the European conflict that defined the close of the 20th century.
Produced by BIRN Kosovo, KALLXO.com, the Prishtina Biennale, and Paper Gallery, the exhibition features the work of journalists, photographers, and media professionals alongside contemporary art pieces. These highlight the war’s impact on the decades that followed.
Visitors can journey through the 1990s conflict, from the peaceful resistance of Kosovo Albanians that followed after Milosevic revoked Kosovo’s status as an Autonomous Province of former Yugoslavia, through Dayton in 1996 to the birth of the Kosovo Liberation Army to the 1998–1999 war, culminating in NATO’s 11-week air campaign that led to Kosovo’s liberation and revenge attacks that followed against non-Albanians living in Kosovo in the second half of 1999.
The exhibition showcases the journalists’ draft of history while demonstrating the media’s central role, paired with artistic interpretations of these events.
The exhibit includes works by notable international artists such as Anri Sala and Adrian Paci from Albania, Goncalo Mabunda from Mozambique, and Olafur Eliasson from Iceland-Denmark, among others. Emerging local artists, including Vullnet Jakupi and Vita Kasapolli from Kosovo, are also prominently featured.
Gazmend Ejupi, curator and arts professor, conceived the idea of blending modern art with journalism to create this distinctive exhibition.
“We’ve combined journalists’ materials, photographs, and videos with contemporary art addressing themes of refugee experiences and global conflicts. This offers a reflective take on our local resistance while showcasing renowned international artists in a newly transformed cultural space,” said Ejupi.
Përparim Rama, mayor of Prishtina spoke in the opening of the exhibition of the importance of the materials shown in this exhibition:
“It is important we see our modern heritage in this exhibition, from the famous Trepça miners strike when they asked for equal rights with other ethnicities in former Yugoslavia, to the peaceful fight led by Rugova and then the armed rebellion of KLA and NATO intervention. All of them made it possible for us to be responsible for our future, to plan it and pave the way of our future – we are able to do that, not someone else on our behalf”, said Rama in the opening on 10 June.
As part of this exhibition, around 150 television reports from international networks, filmed and broadcast about Kosovo between 1992 and 1999, are presented. These include reports from BBC, Das Erste (German public TV), Nippon TV, NHK (Japanese public TV), RTE (Irish public TV), EO 2 Vandaag (Dutch public TV), Tele 5 (Spanish TV), and Frontline Television News. These reports highlight the work of journalists, photographers, camera operators, translators, and local producers who contributed to them.
Contributors to this exhibition include Jeremy Bowen, Ben Brown, Ilaz Bylykbashi, Thomas Dvorzak, Alan Chin, Donika Shahini, Paul Lowe, Max Stahl, Ridvan Slivova, David Loyn, Jehona Lushaku, Besnik Mehmeti, Nik Millard, Andrew Testa, Pal S. Refsdal, Flaka Surroi, Hazir Reka, Marija Ristiq, Fred Scott, Eliza Hoxha, Vaughan Smith, Nora Weller, Sean Whelan, Goran Tomasevic, Sami Mustafa, Alban Bujari, Linda Gusia, Eki Rrahmani, Gazmend Avdiu, the Srebrenica Memorial Center, Anibar, Koha Ditore, RTK, and Oral History Kosovo.
The challenges faced by journalists during Kosovo’s war resonate today as they report on conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, and Ethiopia, often grappling with propaganda and the rise of social media misinformation.
Reporting House is housed in the historic Germia Department Store in Prishtina, repurposed into a cultural venue for the first time. Alongside this main site, spaces like the Prishtina Hammam and Paper Gallery support the museum’s mission to foster reflection, dialogue, and healing, while advocating for a future without war.
Much of the archival TV material and artifacts were donated by Vaughan Smith from Frontline News Television, who worked in Kosovo during 1998–1999.
The Municipality of Prishtina has significantly contributed to the museum’s infrastructure, while the Dutch Embassy is the exhibition’s primary donor.
The European Union in Kosovo supports BIRN Kosovo in various initiatives focused on investigative reporting, factchecking, missing persons and labour rights. The EU also supports the work of BIRN regionally focusing on digital rights, increasing quality of journalism through supporting public broadcasters, journalists and fact-checkers and local media across the Western Balkans.