When I first arrived in Kosovo for the first time nearly twenty-seven years ago, in June 1999, I was as a British journalist during the war. NATO’s fighter aircraft were criss-crossing the sky, tens of thousands of Kosovo Albanian refugees were pouring home from exile in Macedonia and Albania, and the towns and streets were jammed full of peacekeeping troops from thirty countries.
I never dreamt that all these years later I would be returning to discover that there is now a fantastic new museum that tells the dramatic and gripping story of those days.
Now, on Mother Theresa Avenue in the centre of Prishtina, just next to the big statue of Albanian fighter Skenderbeg on his horse, you can find Reporting House. It is an imposing, modern structure, curiously enough set inside an old Yugoslav department store. It has already attracted 30,000 visitors in the first two years since it opened, and the interior of the imposing old building is now stripped back to structural, quasi-industrial basics amply suited to its new contents.
Outside is a striking installation made from scarred timbers taken from houses burned in the war, while inside there are numerous fascinating artefacts that give the viewer a gripping visual explanation of what happened in Kosovo.
One of the first exhibits the visitor sees is an old Sony mobile phone that has stopped a high-velocity rifle bullet. The smashed device was in the belt-bag of a BBC television cameraman, who was shot at while filming Serbian forces in 1998. The phone probably saved his life. His TV footage was just some of the world-wide media coverage in 1998 and ’99 that would help sway world opinion, leading to NATO airstrikes, and a massive humanitarian and military intervention.
Reporting House tells the extraordinary story of this climactic time, with around 500 photographs, 150 television reports, and works and installations by artists from as far apart as Kosovo and the wider Balkans, all the way to Mozambique. There are heart-gripping personal testimonies displayed too.
Among these are the love letters of two rebel Kosovo Liberation Army fighters, Fehmi and Xheve Lladrovci, a couple who hid out in the hills together, fought together and eventually died together in a firefight against the Serbs in September 1998. At the other end of the visual spectrum, the museum houses an original armoured Landrover Defender, as used by journalists in Kosovo, this one scarred and dented by the wear and tear of conflict.
This is a museum like no other, and the visitor is offered a new and different perspective on war and the mass movement of people, and what cards history dealt. It gives a captivating glimpse into what happens when the pen is sometimes as mighty as the sword.
Visitors can explore the museum independently or join a guided tour – all of it free of charge. Meanwhile, across the city at Prishtina Train Station, Reporting House has recently opened its second museum, which is called Exodus ’99. The museum is housed inside an old railway wagon which was used to transport refugees during the war. A gallery beside the wagon presents artifacts connected to these experiences.
Plan your visit
Reporting House
Tuesday to Sunday
10:00–18:00
Exodus ’99
Tuesday to Sunday
12:00–18:00
Monday closed
Phone: +383 48 831 998
Instagram: @reportinghouse
Facebook: Reporting House