Twenty-one students from the Ferizaj municipality in Kosovo took part in a reporting training on media law and protection against extremist actions in the media on October 28, organized by BIRN Kosovo.

The training was held at AAB college in the municipality of Ferizaj.
The course was divided into two sessions, one was covered by Drita Hajdari, prosecutor at the Kosovo Special Prosecution, and the second session was covered by Kreshnik Gashi, editor of the TV programme, Justice in Kosovo.

Hajdari described the history of Islamic extremism over the years and how extremist Islamic ideology made its way to Kosovo. She further described Kosovo’s national strategy 2015-2020 and how the prosecution continues to do a lot of work within the framework of the national strategy to prevent and counter violent extremism.

She pointed out the importance of youth cooperation in reporting suspected cases of radicalisation, and the importance of regional cooperation for preventing violent extremism.
Gashi engaged in a more in-depth conversation with the participants and addressed questions on radicalisation through social media, monitoring of debates on social media, and the methods of reporting cases of terrorism.

According to Gashi, in order to prevent radicalisation through social media a debate around extremist ideologies should be fostered in order to provide a counter narrative to extremism. However, the debate should not, in any chance, contain unreliable or false news which misinform the population.