Pristina, April 30th 2024 – The Ombudsperson notes that today some media portals have published the news about the arrest of a person for committing the criminal offense of “sexual intercourse within the family”, mentioning the ethnicity of the suspect. The media are said to have reported on the basis of the announcement of the Kosovo Police.

The Ombudsperson draws the attention of all institutions, authorities and bodies of the country and in particular draws the attention of the media to the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, which expressly defines that the Republic of Kosovo is a state of its citizens and in such cases it is only the citizenship of the person/persons sufficient to be determined, when this is necessary.

The Ombudsperson recalls that on December 9, 2019 in the Ex-officio Report with Recommendations where, among other things, he recommended to the Kosovo Police that in media announcements and in other communications with the public, in addition to publishing the initials of the person’s first and last name/ to persons involved in cases where there are suspicions of criminal offenses, in whatever capacity, to protect other personal data, including data on ethnicity.

Therefore, the Ombudsperson asks the Kosovo Police, as well as the media outlets in Kosovo to be careful when reporting by not publishing the personal characteristics involved in cases where there are suspicions of criminal offenses, with special emphasis on the ethnicity of these persons.