On The Issues Episode 72: Visar Duriqi

On the Issues with Alon Ben-Meir

Today's guest is Visar Duriqi, an investigative journalist from Kosovo. He has been working as a journalist since January of 2009. As part of Kosovo Center for Investigative Journalism, which is a project of Çohu!, an anticorruption NGO, he investigated public procurement, corruption going on in the energy sector, relations between donors to political campaigns and the public budget as well as reporting about the radicalization of Islam at a time when other media were not reporting on this topic. At BIRN and Pristina Insight, he published articles related to the economy and health system as well as organized crime and corruption, which involves groups and individuals related to politics. He also wrote articles related to religion, not necessary about radicalization but also covering some issues inside the Islamic community of Kosovo, such as the elections and the manipulation of this institution by a handful of people surrounding the Mufti of Kosovo, Mr. Naim Tërnava. From March of 2015 to February of 2016, he was a guest of the Hamburg Foundation for Politically Persecuted People in Germany. During this time he also got a degree from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in Security Governance and Conflict Resolution. Since 2018 he has hosted a show called InDoks. In this show, he has investigated mostly organized crime and groups who on trial, but also has uncovered cases way before the justice system began any investigation against them, such as the case of Ismet Osmani (known as Curri, the guy with a half ear). Almost a year after InDoks broadcast a documentary about him, he was arrested for usury and InDoks produced another more detailed documentary about “Curri”, named “The Albanian Mob”. Many of the shows broadcast by InDoks contain also information to expose corruption within the Kosovo Police and its relation to corruption and organized crime, as well as the involvement of some police officers in morbid crimes such as raping children, killing, and abuse of power. The almost 100 shows broadcast by InDoks include documentaries about war crimes, misuses of trust by religious people through practicing exorcism, as well as investigating cases of people who were put in prison without evidence, or in some cases where evidence shows that they are completely innocent. InDoks has aired profiles of politicians, including a profile of Albin Kurti, the current Prime Minister of Kosovo, to show how much he has changed from an Idealist to a Machiavellist. Lately, InDoks has focused on covering the pandemic situation in Kosovo caused by COVID19, where some of the shows have brought to the public’s attention the public budget being misused to make people rich in the name of buying medical supplies. In this episode, we discuss religious radicalization and those Kosovars who have joined ISIS, Turkey’s ever-growing influence in Kosovo, and Kosovo-Serbia relations and the EU role in that regard.