FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
According to Dibra, the journalist was not escorted or detained, but was "invited to give statements".
The journalist of the chronicle, Elton Qyno, was interrogated for almost 7 hours on Wednesday in Tirana, while the officers of the National Bureau of Investigation carried out a search in his apartment and in his office at Ora television, after the investigations launched by the Special Prosecutor's Office for extradition of investigative secrecy. In a statement to Ora News television, the journalist said he was pressured to reveal the source.
Prosecutor SPAK Behar Dibra told BIRN on Wednesday evening that Ora News TV journalist Elton Qyno was interrogated on Wednesday and a house search was carried out against him by court order as part of a criminal proceeding for violation of investigative secrecy.
"Yes, it was asked to provide the source. He didn't say it. The investigations will continue in other forms to find out who leaked the investigative secret," said Dibra in a telephone conversation with BIRN.
According to Dibra, the journalist was not escorted or detained, but was "invited to give statements".
Qyno could not be reached by phone for comment. However, he told Ora News television earlier that he was called to the Prosecutor's Office at 11 [am] and left around 5 [pm].
Qyno explained that he was notified of a court decision to search his office and apartment and that he was pressured to reveal the source, but without specifying what information it was about.
"They told me to get a statement and they started with the pressures, in all kinds of forms, with the sole purpose of showing the source," he told Ora News.
Elton Qyno is a journalist with a long experience in print and audiovisual media. He currently works as a journalist covering law enforcement and justice institutions on Ora News television and is often invited to comment on current affairs in audiovisual media. Qyno previously worked as a journalist in the daily newspaper Shqiptarja.com and Report TV.
In a reaction to Ora News television, the head of the Albanian Union of Journalists, Aleksandër Çipa, said that he was following the case closely and was waiting for an official reaction from the Special Prosecutor's Office.
"If we are dealing with a case that is called unprecedented in terms of the journalist's right not to deconstruct the source and the insistence of justice to have that source, then of course this will take on another dimension and in this case they will be involved not only the elements of advocacy but also to dimension it as a story that is new and has its own unknowns," said Çipa.
In support of the journalist Elton Qyno, his fellow journalists and politicians have reacted.
"I am with Elton Qyno and with every journalist who serves the public and the truth", writes Top Channel television journalist Anila Hoxha on Facebook.
According to journalist Basir Çollaku, his colleague Elton Qyno has been detained and interrogated for publishing the testimony of a repentant justice.
"They want to know why Nuredin Dumani has published parts of the testimony of the repentant, since earlier they had surprisingly requested non-publication in writing. They also carried out house inspections," he writes on Facebook.
Economy journalist Klodian Tomorri also condemned the case.
"If the reason for the arrest of colleague Elton Qyno is indeed blackmail to reveal the source of the information he has published, this is the most criminal precedent and the most dangerous attack that has ever been made against the media in Albania," he writes.
There was also a reaction from representatives of the political class/ BIRN
Lini një Përgjigje