FRONTLINE MEDIA GROUP STATEMENT

FRONTLINE MEDIA GROUP CONDEMNS FURTHER PUBLIC DEATH THREAT AGAINST VUDI XHYMSHITI

LONDON, 21 September 2026 - Frontline Media Group condemns a further explicit death threat directed at our founder and Editor-in-Chief, Vudi Xhymshiti.

A Facebook account using the name Bekim Jashari wrote publicly: “Edhe në birë të miut nese hyn ka me hongër plumbin ky dhe tradhtarët si ky. Betohem.”

In English: “Even if he hides in a mouse hole, this man and traitors like him will eat the bullet. I swear.”

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The wording is direct, specific and requires urgent assessment by law-enforcement authorities.

This threat follows an already documented pattern of escalating hostility towards Xhymshiti. On 17 September, another Facebook account circulated a video depicting Xhymshiti alongside Kosovo Foreign Minister Donika Gërvalla while voices described them as “spies”, stated that they would die and referred explicitly to the point on their foreheads where a bullet should strike¹. A day earlier, Xhymshiti and The Frontline Media Group Political Editor Michael Sheppard were subjected to intimidation while reporting outside the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, where Dutch police ultimately escorted them from the area².

Frontline Media Group is preserving the relevant screenshots, profile information and associated material and is reporting the matter to the Kosovo Police and competent prosecution authorities. We are calling for the individual behind the account to be identified, the electronic evidence to be secured, the seriousness and immediacy of the threat to be assessed, and any criminal responsibility established through due legal process.

We are also deeply concerned by the limited response from much of Kosovo’s media. Journalists do not need to agree with Xhymshiti’s reporting in order to recognise that an explicit threat involving a bullet against a journalist is a matter of public interest. Kosovo has a documented history of journalists being killed, abducted and attacked, and that history should make every newsroom particularly alert to threats that move from political vilification into explicit language of violence.

We therefore ask Kosovo’s media a simple professional question: does a journalist have to be killed before a public death threat against him becomes news?

Criticism of journalism is legitimate. Disagreement is legitimate. Legal action is legitimate where there is a genuine basis for it. Threatening a journalist with a bullet is not.

The Frontline Media Group calls on the Kosovo Police and prosecution authorities to investigate this matter urgently and lawfully. We also call on Kosovo’s media organisations, journalist associations and relevant public institutions to treat the continuing escalation seriously. Silence in the face of an explicit threat does not protect press freedom. It weakens it.

Frontline Media Group
London
21 September 2026

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FRONTLINE MEDIA GROUP STATEMENT

VIDEO TARGETING JOURNALIST VUDI XHYMSHITI AND MINISTER DONIKA GËRVALLA DEPICTS WHERE A BULLET SHOULD STRIKE THEIR FOREHEADS.

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Frontline Media Group Condemns Intimidation of Xhymshiti and Sheppard

Dutch police escorted Frontline Media Group journalists from The Hague after threats and intimidation by protesters while they covered the Kosovo Specialist Chambers proceedings.