On the Fabricated Return of Hashim Thaçi

A staged transcript, a silenced voice, and a complicit outlet, this isn’t journalism; it’s political necromancy for a man indicted for war crimes.

There are moments in the life of a fragile democracy when truth, no matter how inconvenient, must rise above choreography. Kosovo, a young state still wrestling with the scars of war and the weight of unprocessed trauma, is facing such a moment. A recently aired televised “interview” with former President Hashim Thaçi, currently standing trial at The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity, ought to have been an opportunity for journalistic clarity and public accountability. Instead, it was a masterclass in political theatre and image rehabilitation, a carefully staged PR stunt disguised as reportage.

Broadcast by Klan Kosova, one of the country’s most influential private media outlets, the segment purported to offer an exclusive, 90-minute exchange with Thaçi from the confines of the UN Detention Centre in Scheveningen. But what the public received was neither an interview nor an exchange. The former President, a central figure in Kosovo’s modern political history, did not ap…