Editorial HINA Rama, Haradinaj, media and readers

Days earlier, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama gave a stern rebuke to journalists who had gone to take his stand for Tahiri's request. He called them ignorant and illiterate, asking them to read and not ask stupid questions. More than as kind advice, taking into consideration Rama's tone and face at the moment, the prime minister's word was humiliating and could easily be translated [if decontritual] as pressure on journalists and their work. A similar approach a few weeks ago had been shared by Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, who was asked about the very troubled issue of the demarcation, also rebuked journalists for being illiterate and that they did not know English.

The truth is, none of these two sources are pressure on the media. They don't scare anybody. The prime ministers' demands are inappropriate, but they show an open and spontaneous relationship that can be made in terms of tension. Countries that violate freedom of expression do not charge journalists at press conferences, but are imprisoned or fired. As is the case with Turkey and Russia. Political pressure on the media is strategic and violent. Legality, or word spoken and spoken, is supervised and violated. Political power covers all potential weaknesses, and confrontations don't do them through arguments in public space. But through violence. There are no moments of spontaneousity, because everything is well-planned and well-controld. The spontaneous and tense moments are characteristic of the relations of politicians and journalists in societies with developed democracy. The American President Trump's current relationship with several powerful media is quite similar to our prime ministers' views. He makes reproofs and attacks daily on anyone lined up against him, but it is clear that he does not have the power to submit. There is no way to interfere with the legalization and truths derived from him.

Of course, we can be generally satisfied with our freeness of speech. But a very serious problem of both of our societies is disinformation and misconception of news and events. In the first place, this is due to the dysfunction of justice mechanisms, which, despite all said claims, are incapable of doing their job. This has caused public language to become depreciated and all that is said to be linked to suspicion. So this disfunctionality of these mechanisms has damaged the freedom of expression through a permit that has been given back to slander and still-confirmable claims to circulate in public space. Politically this served political parties that have no clear ideological profile, but other agents of certain group and tribal interests for a simple reason: because nothing is taken that seriously.

Another reason that undermines fair information, and therefore democracy, is the non-proproval of serious media in Kosovo. Presenting political impartiality makes it corrupt to inform and speak. Periscope is a left agent and openly supports social-democratic policies. Such a profile by other media would reinforce them in legal terms and at one time give readers a better opportunity to understand clearly the problems they face. This kind of legal corruption [but not only] has led many key Kosovo journalists to have friendly relations with many politicians who are biased as corrupt, despite at the same time dealing with various corruption issues. This does more than simply prevent those politicians from being affected, but it also causes political officers to be attacked. And it comes as a consequence of a lack of certain beliefs, which would be impossible for such a self-evaluating practice.

However, the biggest media problem is the reader. The weak educational system has produced minds that are fed, not through deep and complex analysis, but through shocking titles and news reports that need not necessarily be true. Readers have oriented the way the portals are informed. The cause of their financial dependence, the media market in general, infected by portals, online newspapers and social networks has slipped into the entertainment landscape. Readers have reinforced the journalistic effort to get the truth out that can be complex, cold, and then insurprising.

The loss of depth and frequency of news has caused the news to be conveyed in drama and rage. There is no attempt at deeper digging, or deeper analysis, because the media market has established readers' demands. The truth no longer corresponds to himself and the facts, but to his reader and emotions. What freedom of expression can we speak of when truth is true if it is not sensational and shocking, expelled from public space?

The question that journalist Rama [Albania's prime minister] asked was truly meaningless. Wednesday was the day when the assembly meeting was to be held to decide on Saimir Tahir's immunity. It couldn't be kept earlier. And it can't even be thought that the [political] nation had done justice for Tahiri as the question allied. It was procedural, and understood. But the journalist was actually serving his readers, who demanded even more noise and shock.

Coming out of this great media and informative darkness, where truths and news seem to have been described by what readers prejudge and wait, it seems to be impossible and risks democracy even more.