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| Screenshot of the journalist Erl Murati at News24 TV |
"In economic parameters, we are not far from some countries in the region, such as Kosovo, Bosnia, Montenegro. But in these states I mentioned, there is still a greater regularity. In terms of the functioning of the state, I would say that these countries are much better than Albania. In Kosovo, the CC ruled that Abdullah Hoti should not take over as prime minister and came out against Thaci. Thaci said he would respect the decision of the Constitutional Court. Our politicians say of justice "better the empty cradle than the devil inside." In Albania, unfortunately, the functioning of the state has many problems.
Albania has had and still has problems with media freedom. Albania is the most corrupt country in Europe. I think a free media should be independent and rich. Wealthy countries have independence, while poor countries have less freedom. While in Albania, since it is a poor country and there are many problems, many factors enter the media. The problems of the Albanian society also enter the media. Only in ‘News24’ about 3-4 investigative shows were made and there was nothing. Because there is no law enforcement. There are many cases of abuse that are not addressed", he said.
Murati assessed that the anti-defamation law that passed in parliament was scandalous.
"I want to make an auto-critique. On the one hand, the authorities are pressuring, but the media has unfortunately been subjected to a lot of pressure. There are hundreds of registered media in Albania, it seems to me 600 portals. Abuse of power cannot be ruled out, because the media is as powerful as others. There are also cases of abuse by the media, but the problem of the media is not abuse, but the fact that there are anonymous denunciations, shows that there is repression and censorship. My colleagues and I have opposed the anti-defamation package, which is scandalous and exacerbates media freedom in the country. There are small improvements, but it is assumed that we are following in Europe's footsteps", said journalist Murati.
Further, Erl Murati stated that he believes in justice reform, but that no results have been seen so far by SPAK or this reform, so much proclaimed.
"There has been a crisis in the country for more than a year and a half. It started with the demolition of mandates by the opposition, while it started with the non-functioning of the High Court where there are many files that have not been opened. Even the justice reform was approved by consensus by all parties, while today we have incomplete functioning of institutions. I am also critical of SPAK, which should have had results today. We need to talk about political corruption. We have an old crisis, where all the political actors "play ping-pong" and they are the main actors.
The US ambassador (Yuri Kim) says that Rama, Basha, Meta are leaders of the state. Of course, the coronavirus has delayed many political processes. The constitutional political crisis is deep and the main reason is the lack of trust that the parties have in each other. In Albania there is a lack of trust, all parties have a lack of trust in each other. At the moment, the "wild" policy is frozen, but I predict that in September I will say that there will be a 'political war", said Murati.
For Murati, the Albanian political world lives in another parallel universe and has nothing to do with the common Albanian people.
"The political world lives in a parallel universe. This justifies the fact that Albanians are not enthusiastic about what politics in the country can do. Therefore, hundreds of thousands of Albanians want to flee. This is not normal. Because we are a country that wants to join the EU, we are part of NATO, but as I said, the political class has little to do with the concerns of Albanians. Politics does not bring trust to citizens. This is also due to the fact that there is no justice here. If there is justice here, we in the EU reports turn out to be the most corrupt country in Europe, and we do not have politicians convicted of corruption. The non-functioning of justice reform has led to this revenge of politicians. I believe that justice reform has good intentions, but the product of justice reform has now given only imaginary results", declared the journalist Murati.