Media complains of judicial pressure

TIRANA, July 13 – The Union of the Albanian Journalists issued a public statement, a public letter it sent to President Bamir Topi as also head of the High Council of Justice.
They expressed their concern on the court’s decision against a private television station, Top Channel.
Last month a Tirana court judge decided to fine the TV station with 400,000 euros for broadcasting a video allegedly showing a former Culture Minister, Ylli Pango, of harassing a woman asking for a job in his institution.
“That verdict and the financial penalty given by the judge against Top Channel has scared the whole community of the professional journalists,” wrote the letter.
Many media organizations inside and outside the country raised such a concern following the verdict considering it unfair. They also have considered it a friction not based on professional context.
“Such an unfair verdict … has sparked a negative echo for the role and trust to the Albanian courts. Such a verdict compromises the trust to the justice applied from some individuals like the judge in case (Agim Bendo),” it said.
The journalists’ Union also denounced what they called as pressure exercised by a group of 39 judges joining a petition against the alleged pressure the media was making on the Top Channel case.
They asked the president that no judge who joined that petition should get involved or be part of the judging panels in this case.