FLASH
Shkruar nga Emiljano Kaziaj
When the prime minister of a country does not condemn media censorship, but encourages it as the preferred approach and publicly compliments anyone who successfully implements it, then it is very easy for any kind of censorship to be normalized and legislated.
In a meeting with the (re)elected mayors of the Municipalities for Tirana, as part of the thanksgiving tour, Prime Minister Edi Rama said that '...we have pampered Erin a lot, in the good sense of the word that we don't get any title like this unintentionally, although lali Eri controls the titles and there is no problem...' (the statement can be seen here , starting at min 4:28). This statement contains several meanings that are worth breaking down to show the relationship between the prime minister (government) and the media in Albania. Using the simple technique of discourse analysis - which aims to analyze possible meanings of a text, taking into account the context where the statement was made - I will try to present a reflection on the relationship between the prime minister and the media in Albania, as it emerges from this statement.
What constitutes news? By means of the phrase '...so that we don't get any headlines...' the prime minister assumes what the media can report from the meeting. According to him, the media can focus on articles about his relationship with the Mayor of Tirana, as happened in several cases. This is an informed assumption by the prime minister considering the logic of making news in Albania, where the media increasingly prioritizes a type of spectacle reporting that focuses on reporting on political individuals as well as entertainment personalities. This type of reporting is in the government's interest because by focusing on the spectacle, attention can easily be diverted from the responsibility of accountability.
On the other hand, the prime minister is not just assuming how the media will report, but he is also suggesting to the media what to report. This behavior is also a form of indirect control. This reflects the prime minister's desire to have a spectacle report and no accountability requirement.
The Prime Minister knows that the news is controlled . By clearly stating that Lali Eri controls the news, the prime minister is admitting that this is already a known phenomenon to him and everyone else. This statement is enough to show that media censorship in Albania is a phenomenon that does not bother the prime minister. On the other hand, by putting the responsibility of this behavior only on Lali Erin, the prime minister is trying to remove the responsibility from himself or the government. But, just the fact that the Prime Minister affirms in a public meeting that the news is controlled and brings this as an achievement and not as a criticism, is enough to understand that this is something acceptable in governance, at all levels.
The Prime Minister encourages control of the news . This is a meeting with the elected Mayors for the area of Tirana. By publicly complimenting Lali Erin for the fact that he controls the headlines and has no problem , the prime minister is in some way sending a message to everyone else that this is a desired approach for him and his government. He is advising the newly elected on their recipe for media relations success. He is also giving a message to both the media and the citizens present at the meeting, trying to normalize the phenomenon of media censorship and reinforce the idea that control over the news is not only not a problem, but is key to the success of governance.
Two days ago (3.6.2023), in one of the online reporting spaces [1] , I read an article that brought an interesting perspective of how communication works in foreign and domestic politics in Albania. The next day, I noticed that the article had disappeared from the site and was no longer available online. Since the article referred to some communications that were made public by a group of hackers and which the prosecution has prohibited the media from reporting, this may be the reason for the article's disappearance, even though the article in question did not publish the extracted data. by hackers and did not refer to any online source where this data could be found. This is to show that censorship in the media can take many forms, from informal ones to legal ones.
When the prime minister of a country does not condemn media censorship, but encourages it as the preferred approach and publicly compliments anyone who implements it successfully, then it is very easy for any kind of censorship to be normalized and legislated. / BIRN
Lini një Përgjigje