By Andi Bushati
An “Opinion” show planned to reveal the platforms of four new parties, turned on Thursday evening into a strong conceptual clash between the leader Fevziu and the head of the Joint movement Arlind Qori, who thanks to his insistence on his idea left them in shadow colleagues-rivals.
The essence of the conflict suddenly became the truth in the reflection of reality, in the selection of themes and characters from the big televisions. Put in the simplest possible way, Qori claimed that he was censored because his ideas ran counter to the interests of the owner of the Klan and the oligarchic group he represented in the media. Fevziu replied that no one but him had the right to invite or not invite someone and that he was the only one who decided in that studio, based on the audience.
So, despite the jokes, the frequent raising of the voice, the call for help of third-party quotes, the heart of the problem that was debated was: to what extent do the media bosses interfere in editorial policies? How far do they extend their tentacles? Do they go as far as eliminating characters or announcing taboo topics and ideas?
In this debate, I want to say that I am 100% with Arlind Qori. Firstly for deeply personal reasons and secondly as someone who has the privilege of seeing our media system inside and out.
Let’s start over. I was together with 6-7 colleagues and businessmen, one of the founders of what would later become the KLAN media group. I have been active since 1997, as a journalist, magazine editor, TV show host, and for years I have contributed as a guest to a large number of these media shows. But since 2015, after I had a conflict with Aleksandr Frangaj, moreover, not on issues that were exclusively related to the Klan, I have never stepped on this media again. None of those who invited me before had the courage to do so again. My friends, with whom we continued to drink coffee or a glass of wine and maintain the same relations, were afraid to open to me those doors that I had easily entered before. Not in the shows, not in the news, not for political talk, nowhere. For me, suddenly, the media in the birth of which I had modestly contributed, turned into the fence of a “land of xanun”.
When I remember this, an expression that I had often heard in the corridors comes to mind: “he is unwanted in the Klan”. So the owner simply blacklisted him. Precisely because I know this, I believe Arlind Qori, when he quotes Arian Çani, he said publicly that “we had orders not to invite you”.
But regardless of the personal cases of Arlind, Fevzi, Çani, or mine, this topic is much broader. Basically, it is about the right to exercise this profession freely and independently. And here, for the way they were positioned in last night’s show, Arlindi and Blendi, the right is completely in favor of Qori. He didn’t just deal with the Klan. His complaint was about the system. He absurdly mentioned the case of Top Channel, which aired the prime minister personally attacking him for the pensioners’ protests, but did not cover those protests at all. He had in his baggage an electoral campaign where he denounced every tower of oligarchs in Tirana with images and by name, and not even a single second was broadcast on the big TVs.
Fevzi’s mistake was that in an effort to win the debate, he put himself in the role of the defender of the system. Expressions such as “plenty of politicians who blame journalists”, “you young people have become like the old ones”, “no one has the right to hold reporters who stand with a microphone in hand”, “no one calls to determine invited to the studio”, let you understand that in this country free journalism is not threatened by the financial and decision-making power of the owners.
In fact, the truth is so different. This is seen by the viewer himself who notices that, on the day when the 5D scandal broke, no one dared to speak about Erion Veliaj and his directors. But, this is not something that can only be seen with the naked eye.
Almost all reliable international organizations that monitor media freedom talk about television controlled by 5 families that own over 90% of the television audience. “Reporters Without Borders” (see the link below) that rolled Albania lower and lower in their annual ranking, ranking it last in the Western Balkans, as one of the reasons for this degradation noted the ownership of TVs that are led by from companies that receive favors from the state in the construction sector. Meanwhile, a coalition of seven associations for media freedom noted in the conclusions for our country that “…the direct interference of the owners in editorial independence is high and some sensitive issues or topics are considered inadmissible for journalists”.
So, there is no need for more examples to show that our big media have turned into kiosks to solve the family and financial problems of a handful of bosses. They do this in the lowest way and to the detriment of the public interest, serving the next ruler. They have reached ridiculous records, when it snows in Theth, they report this through the Facebook of the head of the government, while when a foreign magazine writes about Ksamil, it is reported that Edi Rama has also reposted its link.
Today, our screens have turned into servants of tapes ready for the skits they prepare with the help of subordinate actors, Lali, Bela, or Edi. Therefore, the debate cannot simply be reduced to the fact of how many times Qori has stepped into Fevzi’s studio during the last few years. This is only the symptom of a deeper disease: that of the overwhelming part of our media that have lost the mission of mutual and true information.
Unfortunately, many guests in the show’s studio also fell into this trap, saying to the leader of the Together movement “what do you need, the media is private”, or “become a factor, then ask to appear on TV”. To them and to Fevzi, Arlindi was right, when he invited them to point the finger at a discredited system. Of course, he remained a minority in the studio – which reinforces his thesis – but I believe that this was not the case for the public who sees the degradation of our televisions every day. (lapsi.al)
