MONITORING REPORT ON HATE SPEECH IN KOSOVO 2025
October 18, 2025
This report is part of a broader regional effort to document and analyse hate speech and discriminatory narratives in the Western Balkans, with a specific focus on Kosovo during the period 1 January 2024 – 30 June 2025.
During this period, Kosovo continued to navigate a post-war reality shaped by fragile interethnic relations, political volatility, and the growing influence of digital media. Against this backdrop, this report aims to analyse hate and disinformation narratives that emerged across online and traditional media, with a particular focus on how vulnerable groups and public discourse were targeted and shaped.
Freedom House’s Freedom in the World 2025 report maintains Kosovo’s status as Partly Free. Meanwhile Reporters Without Borders ranks Kosovo 99th, a sharp decline of 24 places in 2025 World Press Freedom Index from its 75th position in 2024, marking the country’s worst ranking to date in the region. Amid such conditions, hate speech, misinformation, and coordinated campaigns, especially on social media, continue to challenge democratic discourse and societal cohesion.
Central to this report is the recognition that hate speech does not occur in a vacuum. It emerges from, and reinforces, broader social, political, and historical tensions. The period under review was marked by political volatility, including the ongoing institutional crisis in Kosovo’s northern municipalities following the 2024 local elections, as well as a stalled normalization process between Kosovo and Serbia amid diplomatic fatigue.
At the same time, new cultural and ideological flashpoints, such as the emergence of the Deçani Movement advocating religious conversion to Catholicism, backlash against Kosovars performing Hajj (the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca), and polarizing debates over the Civil Code and LGBTIQ+ rights, have intensified identity-based fault lines.
These developments, coupled with low trust in institutions and polarized public discourse, created fertile ground for hate speech and disinformation. Accordingly, this report adopts a sociological approach to hate speech that transcends narrow legal definitions and considers a diverse spectrum of personal and group identities.
