FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
A worker was killed in a gun attack that remains unsolved while Albanian journalists faced physical violence, threats and lawsuits while critical media faced what appeared to be selective tax inspections. Get to know the main developments on messengers during 2023.
On January 26 of this year, journalist Elvis Hila and his wife were attacked by two people. The "crime" that Hila had committed to cause the aggression was that he had reported it. Hila had reported on a court decision. The two aggressors were later sentenced by the Lezha Court to 5 and 4 months in prison each for the violence against Hila. The case of legal punishment of the aggressors is the only such case recorded this year, while the aggression against the announcer is not. In February, the journalists of the Fix Fare show on Top Channel were attacked because they were filming the use of the Black River in Fushë-Kruje for inerts. While in March, Pal Kola, 60 years old, a security guard, lost his life after an as yet unsolved assassination attempt against Top Channel, one of the country's most important television stations. The incident, which constitutes the most serious aggression against the media in decades, continues to remain unsolved. A car that was later found burned is the evidence that authorities have failed to lead to the suspects.
In July, Syri.tv journalist Marsi Korreshi faced pressure in Rrogozhinë. Her "crime" was the presence at an electoral meeting of Mayor Edison Memolla. The attackers are still under investigation. In October, journalist Afrovita Hysaj received a death threat. Her "crime" was reporting on a rape case. The author of the threat was not arrested by the police and was not detained, but the police stated that they received Hysaj's report.
All the cases of aggression against journalists, which seem to have increased in the past year, are related to only one thing: the truth is an undesirable product of some people, who, under certain circumstances, dare to attack the messenger. . In a country where the government and other political forces in most cases produce their own "news", which is then broadcast by unlabeled media as non-journalistic products, the cases where journalists work to provide independent information to the public make they automatically enemies.
Physical attacks on journalists are only one side of the problem that leaves Albanians uninformed and in the dark, thereby undermining their ability to vote for the best candidates in elections. Albanian and international human rights organizations have had a year overloaded with reports of violations and attempts to violate or limit the ability of journalists to report independently.
In November, the employees of the Guard of the Republic in a violent and totally unacceptable way stopped the journalists reporting from the Parliament of Albania from carrying out their basic work, interviewing the deputies. The Assembly thus becomes the institution that repeatedly aims to effectively stop independent reporting. In 2021, the assembly passed a regulation under which journalists had to be escorted through the corridors of the assembly by officials, apparently in order to effectively prevent them from talking unsupervised with MPs or other staff.
When journalists cannot be physically stopped, the government uses other means, targeting them through pro-government media, or as it seems, attacking them through anonymous or not so anonymous portals, not for what they say, but for what they are. The journalist Ola Xama was attacked by the mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, initially in personal communications, being described as a "paid killer", while a number of media continued to target her for weeks, not what she had reported on, but why she had reported. Xama's "crime" was reporting on the multi-million dollar incinerator affair in Tirana.
According to the chronology of events drawn up by SPAK, it was a request from the Municipality of Tirana that brought about the infamous concession, which has cost Albanians 100 million euros to date. Veliaj opposes this chronology, but instead of giving explanations, attacks the announcer as a "paid killer".
The mayor, who appears almost every day on several televisions simultaneously with chronicles prepared by his propaganda office, has become a constant concern of media organizations. In March, many local and international organizations expressed alarm at his attack on a woman he claims is the person behind a popular Facebook page called Lolita. In the same attack, Veliaj also targeted a leader of another popular website, Jeta Osh Qef. Veliaj published the personal data of the person and her children, whom she assumes is the author of Lolita, while the organizations noted that it poses a risk to their lives. According to Veliaj, the "crime" of these sites is the complaints against the quality of the public transport service in Tirana.
Concerns about media freedom came not only from political and party institutions such as the government, local government, or parliament, but also from independent institutions. The Special Prosecutor's Office Against Organized Crime and Corruption (SPAK) and the Special Court caused serious concern in December when they interrogated journalist Elton Qyno for several hours. While Qyno was summoned as a person with knowledge of a suspected criminal offense, the court issued within hours permission for SPAK to search the journalist, his vehicle, his office and his home, in search of a source.
While the investigation of the release of the investigative secret is a duty and right of the prosecution, the control and seizure of the journalist's working tools in search of the source, according to freedom of expression experts, can be allowed only in very extreme cases and only after all measures other investigations have been exhausted without result. SPAK suspects that there is a leak of secret information from its offices, while the investigative measures undertaken by it before going to the journalist are not disclosed. The access of the journalist's work tools by public authorities is considered very disturbing because a journalist communicates with a number of sources, where all are exposed by the seizure of the device apart from the concrete issue. For this reason, the European Court of Human Rights has determined that such measures can only be taken in extreme cases, as they cause an intimidating effect for all people, official or not, who speak and provide information to journalists.
In December, BIRN Albania and the Global Media Registry published the results of the Media Ownership Monitor, a multifaceted analysis of the media landscape, political affiliations, diversity or lack of diversity of information provided to citizens or other issues. The report found that the media market is extremely concentrated in terms of revenue sharing among operators, while the variety of information provided seems to be further reduced by the practice of most public institutions or political parties to produce the "news" that then broadcast as independent reports from televisions.
The report found that the owners of the mainstream media have far more profitable business interests than the media in sectors in which the government's willingness to approve a decision, say concession or strategic investor status, is the essence of economic success. The report also observed that online or social media, although it appears to be more diverse than conventional media such as television or newspapers, in fact appears to be flooded with entertainment information produced by conventional media.
Albanians have the option of watching one of a dozen television channels, but it seems that regardless of which channel they choose to watch, the information they receive is more or less the same, mostly produced by propaganda offices and without journalistic input. The report also noted a back-and-forth practice followed by the government vis-à-vis the country's mainstream media. A pro-government media outlet received free public land and a building through a government decision that did not involve a competitive process. Another television station, which has fallen into conflict with the government, was ordered to leave another state-owned building./Birn
Lini një Përgjigje