Albania Pro-Govt Daily Calls For Journalist Murder

Albanian daily Koha Jone, seen by independent observers as a publication close to Prime Minister Sali Berisha, called for the murder of a publisher critical of the government in its Tuesday editorial.

In graphic detail, the article called for the assassination of the publisher of the daily Tema, Mero Baze, a newspaper that is attacking or being attacked by Berisha on a daily basis.

“The crushing of the skull can be done in several ways, bashing against the wall, with a hammer, blowing it up or sawing through it,” reads the article depicting the imaginary crime in shocking details.

Local media watchdogs reacted with alarm and called on the government to distance itself from the article.

“We are deeply concerned about the public threat and the gruesome description of the imaginary killing of journalist Mero Baze, published by Koha Jone,” said a joint statement by the Albanian Journalists' League and the Forum for Free Media.

“Having in mind the amount of pressure on this journalist by the Albanian government, which reached its extreme with the paper’s premises getting blocked by police and his car set on fire in front of his house, this new public threat against him, by a newspaper close to the government, is a new blow against free press and a flagrant violation of media ethics toward a colleague,” the watchdogs added.

Bazo's Tema newspaper has focused on investigative reporting, many of its stories attacking officials for alleged graft and corruption. On January 8, police evicted it from its offices in a government building, despite a court order blocking the eviction.

The row escalated on December 16, when the Ministry of Economy canceled without notice a 20-year contract that the daily held for its premises inside a state-owned building, leading the newspaper to file a lawsuit.

The government said it was evicting the newspaper from its premises for national security reasons, not giving an explanation of its reasoning. On January 6 a Tirana court ordered the ministry to stop the eviction process, but three days later, police surrounded the Tema offices and forcefully stopped journalists from entering the premises.

“The unexpected police siege and the Prime Minister’s arrogance in trying to silence us, as it seems, knows no bounds,” the publisher of Tema, Mero Baze, said in a press statement following the police action.

Baze’s luxury BMW went up in flames on New Year’s Eve in what Baze said was an attack, but which police described as self-combustion due to a short circuit.

The Ministry of Economy denied there was any political motive behind the eviction and through a statement on Sunday claimed it had never received the court order, while the cancellation of the contract was “necessary for public requirements”.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has also reacted to the government seizure of Tema’s offices.

Police should immediately allow Tema journalists to enter their offices and do their job," CPJ's Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said in a press statement on Jan 11.

"Instead of harassing the reporters, authorities should investigate the recent explosion of publisher Mero Baze's car. Such methods of intimidation of a critical news outlet are incompatible with the democratic path Albania has chosen."

(Reporting by Besar Likmeta)