• Ardita Zejnullahu - Chair of the board

    Ardita Zejnullahu serves as Executive Director of the Association of Broadcast Media in Kosovo - AMPEK. She is an accomplished media professional with over 14 years extensive experience across the full spectrum of media freedom and communications laws from the regulatory and private commercial perspective as well as public sector perspective.
    Ardita holds a BA degree in Economics & Management and MA in International Law from the University of Pristina; M.Stud research degree (Program in Comparative Media Law and Policy) from the University of Oxford; LLM in Comparative European and International Law from the European University Institute in Florence and MSx in Leadership from the Stanford University.
    Prior to joining AMPEK, Ardita has worked as a Financial Manager for Save the Children in Kosovo and as a Financial Advisor for NCSC/DPK Consulting; USAID implementing partner on court administration project in Kosovo.
    She served as a Board member for several civil society organizations in Kosovo

  • Filloreta Bytyçi - member

    Filloreta Bytyçi’s background is Law and she holds an MA on Contemporary European Studies from Sussex University (UK). She has extensive experience working for various donor projects in the areas of community development, civil society, media and public administration. Since 2004, as a consultant, she supports policy development and planning reforms at the Government of Kosovo. Currently she is the Deputy Team Leader/Policy Development Specialist for the Sida funded project to support Capacity Development in the Field of Policy Development and Coordination in Kosovo, providing advice and support to the Government Coordination Secretariat staff in the Office of the Prime Minister of Kosovo and to the line ministries, to continuously increase their capacity for policy development and coordination. Her professional background lies considerably also in the area of media. She was media law adviser for the USAID/REX Independent Media Development Program on matters related to media law and media regulations. In addition, she acted as an advisor to the two local media and journalists’ associations. She was twice nominated and appointed by the Assembly as the member of the Council of the Independent Media Commission of Kosovo.
    She also contributed to the development of several studies: OECD/SIGMA Regional Comparative Study on Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA), Swiss Intercooperation Kosovo Feasibility Study on Municipal Capacity Development System for Kosovo, Sida Study Outlining Possible Areas and Issues for Support to Public Administration in Albania and Kosovo 2014-2020,Sida Study Assessment of Options for Continued Swedish Support to a Pluralistic Civil Society in Serbia, Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina and GIZ Diagnostic report on the areas of policy coordination, strategic planning, legislation, management of European Integration and implementation of functional reviews in the Government of Kosovo.

  • Kristof Bender - member

    is ESI's Deputy Chairman. He leads various ESI research projects on EU enlargement and on South Eastern Europe. Educated in sociology in Vienna and Paris, he has worked in South East Europe in various capacities since 1997, including managing higher education projects in Bosnia for the World University Service, as Attaché for Humanitarian Affairs in the Austrian Embassy in Belgrade, as a researcher for the International Centre for Migration Policy Development and as a consultant for various institutions, including the Austrian Federal Chancellery, DFID and SIDA. Part of the ESI team since early 2000, Kristof has been living in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, and is currently based in Vienna.

  • Anamari Repic - member

    is correspondent for Radio Television of Kosovo from Belgrade. She has been for twenty years in journalism, communication and media management. She graduated with Faculty of Teacher Education and completed Master studies in journalism. From 2010 – 2016, in two terms, she was the Deputy Director General of RTK, when she participated in the establishment of a TV channel in the Serbian language and the development of minority communities' programs. For almost ten years she was working as correspondent of Radio Free Europe from Pristina, and she is vice president of the Board of the Press Council of Kosovo. She was a scholar of the fellowship program for women leaders in Washington. Anamari deals with the issues of media self-regulation, women's rights and journalistic training.

  • Besim Nebiu- member

    Based in Bratislava, Slovakia, Besim Nebiu is currently holding the position of Director for Central and Eastern Europe/Commonwealth of Independent States at Habitat for Humanity International – a global housing and shelter non-profit based in US.
    Besim has more than 20 years’ of experience in management of international development programs, media & journalistic rights advocacy and shelter and residential programs in South Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Besim has vast experience in managing and supporting field offices, good knowledge of international development actors and policies in Western Balkans. He has strong project cycle management and result based program-management experience with development programs supported by foreign donor agencies. He has managed multi-annual multi-country USAID and EU programs and has done consultancy for USAID, SDC, EU, UN and other large international organizations.
    His understanding of the role of the civil society in the democratization process in the region is complemented by in-depth knowledge of the socio-political context in Kosovo. Having been involved in the civil society, both professionally as a trainer, coach and manager, as well as individually as an activist, Besim has good grasp of and experience with civic activism, participatory policy making, constituency building, gender equality and support to minority communities and vulnerable groups. Having started as an NGO small grant administrator back in the 90ies, he has over 20 years of international experience with evaluation of grant proposals, external evaluations and impact assessments of large civil society development programs.
    His native language is Albanian and he is proficient in English, Macedonian and Serbian.

  • Armend Bekaj - member

    works as Senior Programme Officer with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) in Stockholm, Sweden. He is part of the core team that publishes the Global State of Democracy report, providing measurements and analysis on democracy for 162 countries around the world. Armend has more than 15 years of experience with international organizations and research institutes. His expertise lies on good governance and democratization, peace and conflict, DDR and security, and political integration of ex-combatants in transitory societies. Over the years, he has worked and collaborated with the OSCE, USAID, UNDP and a range of other regional, international or civil society organizations.