Switzerland helps Kosovo radio merger
Switzerland has played a key role in the merger of two radio stations in Kosovo.
The Swiss Development Agency said last month’s integration of Radio Blue Sky and Radio Television Kosovo (RTK) was designed to strengthen the independence and impartiality of public broadcasting in the province.
Blue Sky was set up by the Swiss Hirondelle Foundation last October and run on behalf of the United Nations transitional administration.
It has become RTK’s second channel and will continue to broadcast in Kosovo’s three main languages, Albanian, Serbo-Croat and Turkish, offering a diet of news, current affairs, politics, culture and drama.
Therese Aubrecht, project manager behind the merger, said: “It’s a very important part of rebuilding society after the war, having independent media, especially in this part of the world which has always had state-controlled media.”
The Swiss Development Agency said it would provide SFr1 million for Blue Sky in the second half of the year.
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