The Thaçi Trial and the Editorial Manipulations Led by Berat Buzhala’s Nacionale

Kosovo’s media twist truth into comforting fiction, shielding those who forged our present crises while masquerading propaganda as journalism and betraying the public’s right to honest scrutiny

I was sitting at my desk in central London when the first headlines from Pristina drifted across my screen, dressed in the usual fanfare. Nacionale announced that Christopher Hill and Wesley Clark would testify in defence of Hashim Thaçi at The Hague, and it did so with the solemnity of a state ceremony. Hill, we were told, had been a special American envoy in Kosovo, a key figure in Rambouillet, a diplomat seasoned across continents. Clark’s name was polished with similar care, presented as the NATO commander who had led the seventy-eight-day air campaign against Milosevic’s forces. Both men were described as if history itself had vouched for the defendant.

Radio Dukagjini joined in with matching reverence, Hill at the UÇK headquarters in Likoc, Hill in Junik with Holbrooke, Hill the mediator, Hill the friend. The testimony was delayed by Hill’s other commitments, they said. The hearing would begin at 14:00. Every sentence seemed built to remind readers that these were not witnesses b…