Journalism Is Dead. Klan Kosova Pulled the Trigger.
Klan Kosova isn’t a media outlet. It’s a gilded bunker for oligarchs masquerading as journalists, waging war on truth while prostituting public trust.
In the fog-bound domain of post-war reconstruction, Kosovo was once the West’s darling an emblem of humanitarian intervention and a laboratory of democratic engineering. Billions flowed in. Think tanks drew maps of political reform. Embassies offered seminars on civil society. The flag, six stars, a golden Kosovo on deep blue was hoisted with fanfare. The narrative, shaped in Brussels and polished in Washington, proclaimed that Kosovo was not only sovereign but exemplary. The reality now, some seventeen years since its declaration of independence, is far darker and far more embarrassing.
In the dim corridors of Kosovo’s media sector, truth has long been trampled by wealth. But recent investigations1 into Klan Kosova, a flagship broadcaster owned by the Devolli brothers: Blerim and Shkëlqim, reveal something still more sinister: a privatised propaganda machine that operates not only in defiance of journalistic ethics but in naked contempt for democratic integrity. Theirs is not a media enterprise in any meaningful sense. It is a velvet-cloaked racket, engineered to protect economic monopolies, advance political vendettas, and smother dissent. The European Fund for the Balkans, in a study published by EurActiv2 and Osservatorio sui Balcani, lays bare this dystopia.
The findings are harrowing.
At Klan Kosova, censorship is not covert. It is doctrine. Reporters are explicitly forbidden from covering stories that might tarnish the image of the Devolli conglomerate3, which spans everything from furniture and coffee to telecommunications and real estate. The embargo placed by the United States government on Comodita Home, the Devollis’ flagship mattress firm4, for price manipulation, was met by the station with editorial silence. The story wasn’t merely underreported, it was deliberately erased. What emerged instead was a PR mirage: puff pieces lamenting governmental hostility toward business, shorn of any mention of the Devollis’ own misdeeds.
Klan Kosova’s defenders, of which there are dwindling few, cry persecution whenever regulatory oversight draws near. But insiders paint a portrait of internal decay. When the government moved to revoke the broadcaster’s licence in 2023, on the basis of its registration in Serbia, a technical but symbolically loaded violation, editorial staff were reportedly instructed by Shkëlqim Devolli to initiate a full-frontal assault on Prime Minister Albin Kurti. What followed was a grotesque reversal of democratic accountability: a news organisation rallying its machinery not in defence of truth, but in the service of a billionaire’s wounded ego.
This is not an anomaly. It is the rule. From Dukagjini TV to ATV, from TV1 to Gazeta Express, the country’s major media outlets increasingly resemble subsidiaries of opaque business interests. Ownership structures are labyrinthine; editorial decisions are handed down not from newsroom editors but from boardroom chairmen. Reporters are monitored, nudged, and when necessary, reprimanded. In some cases, dismissed. In others, intimidated. The consequence is a media environment where corruption isn’t just unreported, it is structurally protected.
Consider the case of BIRN Kosovo’s long-running programme Jeta në Kosovë, which exposed shell companies tied to Blerim Devolli.
The response?
Cancellation.
Not from a Devolli-owned outlet, but from the public broadcaster, RTK. The show’s host, Jeta Xharra, was told bluntly by the RTK director: "You caused us problems with that story." This is not the voice of a free press. It is the confession of a hostage.
At TV Dukagjini, editorial directives reportedly include blacklists of disfavoured guests, public figures whose presence might disrupt the network’s business alignments. At ATV, journalists speak of verboten subjects: private universities, financial regulators, and indeed any entity that might intersect awkwardly with the interests of its ownership. TV1, meanwhile, has allegedly steered clear of scrutiny over Interior Ministry contracts and licensing scandals involving its telecom parent company. The airwaves, it seems, have been scrubbed clean of accountability.
The result is a republic where journalism limps along on broken crutches. The 2025 World Press Freedom Index places Kosovo at 99th globally5, a dismal position for a country whose democratic aspirations are ostensibly EU-bound. Reporters Without Borders cite the overwhelming influence of politically entangled business groups. But the deeper story is one of betrayal. Not just by owners or editors, but by the very institutions tasked with defending the Fourth Estate.
The European Federation of Journalists warns of a "culture of fear." Abit Hoxha, a Kosovo-born media scholar, is more direct: "Media owners are not interested in independent journalism. They are interested in political leverage."
Yet the silence of institutions is matched only by the complicity of certain watchdogs. When Devolli Corporation brought a SLAPP lawsuit against BIRN6, ostensibly to silence further scrutiny, Kosovo’s media defenders mumbled. When Gazeta Express omitted Claudia Tenney’s grotesquely partisan history while amplifying her call for the release of a man who insulted KLA martyrs, few blinked7. When Flutura Kusari, the self-styled defender of free speech, turned SLAPP tactics against a Kosovar citizen who had merely criticised her, the howls of solidarity from Western press freedom groups rang hollow8.
Indeed, Kusari’s conduct reveals a deeper rot. From her proximity to Klan Kosova management to her tactical silence on Devolli-linked SLAPPs, she exemplifies the figure of the captured activist: draped in liberal rhetoric, but functioning as an asset of the very power structures she claims to oppose.
All the while, figures like Berat Buzhala and Valon Syla use their platforms to inject Kremlin-style9 reflexive control into the public bloodstream10. The aim is not persuasion, but paralysis. Narrative confusion becomes a strategy. False equivalence becomes gospel. The state is undermined, truth inverted, memory vandalised.
This is no longer a media crisis. It is an epistemological war.
The government’s failure to act decisively is inexcusable. Media regulation must be restructured. Ownership must be made transparent. Conflicts of interest must be prosecuted, not pandered to. Journalists must be shielded, not from scrutiny, but from retribution. And the parasitic fusion of oligarchy and journalism must be severed, not tolerated.
Kosovo was born of sacrifice. It was cradled in hope. It cannot be surrendered to profiteers masquerading as journalists, nor to foreign narratives recited in local tongues. The time for polite concern is over. What Kosovo’s democracy now requires is not another donor-funded seminar, but a reckoning.
The lie must be named. The truth must be defended. Or the republic will be lost to the soft coup of silence.
Debunking Shkëlqim Devolli’s Grandiose Claims
The recent report by Klan Kosova, a media outlet owned by oligarch Shkëlqim Devolli, has sparked widespread skepticism due to its fantastical portrayal of Devolli’s influence and access to high-level U.S. political circles.
With media outlets in Kosovo and the region increasingly concentrated in the hands of major business moguls, journalists say censorship to protect the owners’ interests has become ‘the norm’. — OSB.
The bosses of Klan Kosova, one of Kosovo’s biggest media company, have a straight-forward approach to stories concerning their wealthy owners – they ignore them. — EURActiv.
Debunking Shkëlqim Devolli’s Grandiose Claims
From CIA briefings to NATO advocacy, Shkëlqim Devolli’s fantastical claims unravel as a hollow PR stunt disguised as statesmanship. — The GPC Media Watch.
Devolli Dilemma: Kosovo's Oligarchs, Diplomatic Entanglements, and the Echoes of Trade Malpractice
The Devolli saga: A deep dive into alleged tax embezzlement, dubious international ties, and the shadow of trade malpractice shaking Kosovo's political and economic landscape. — The GPC I Unit.
The Capture of Kosovo’s Media: Open Letter to Defenders of Press Freedom
Kosovo’s media faces a crisis as investigative journalists are intimidated by organised crime networks. Immediate international action is needed to protect press freedom. — The GPC Media Watch.
BIRN Wins Landmark SLAPP Case Against Devolli Corporation — Prishtina Insight.
Gazeta Express Covers Tenney’s Call for Popovic’s Release
Claudia Tenney’s staunch support for Serbia, reported by Gazeta Express, highlights her controversial advocacy for the release of Igor Popovic amid her anti-Kosovo rhetoric. — The GPC Media Watch.
How a Press Freedom Icon Became a Political Actor
Flutura Kusari built a reputation defending press freedom. Now, she stands accused of using that same power to silence a citizen who challenged her. — The GPC Media Watch.
The Disinformation War on Kosovo
If the weapons buried in Vallaq are the physical embodiment of Serbia’s clandestine war on Kosovo’s sovereignty, then Berat Buzhala’s rhetoric is its ideological camouflage. — The GPC Media Watch.
Russian-Style Psy-Ops Are Targeting Kosovo
Ilir Mirena and Valon Syla are not reporting the truth. They are deploying Russian-style psychological warfare to fracture Kosovo’s society and undermine its sovereignty. — The GPC Media Watch.