Taci and the media, its freedom and independence

TIRANA, Nov 9 – Oil businessman Rezart Taci handed himself over to police in Tirana last week and the Tirana district court ordered him kept under arrest following charges of assault over the beating of journalist Mero Baze.
Rezart Taci, 38, who owns the refinery ARMO, gave himself up to police after a court ruled he should await trial in jail over the attack on the journalist Mero Baze. The court did not accept his bail guarantee of 100,000 euro to be let free.
Taci has denied the charges. If proven guilty, he could be fined or sentenced to up to three years in jail.
Baze had strongly criticized the businessman, accusing him of tax evasion and saying that he was exploiting close ties to Prime Minister Sali Berisha for illegal profiteering. The same charges of collaboration were made against Berisha too.
Baze had run a series of critical reports on his television show Faktor Plus on Vizion Plus private television station accusing Taci and his company of massive tax evasion. Baze also publishes the Tirana daily TEMA, a publication very critical of Taci and the government.
“I totally deny the allegations that I participated in the brutalities that have caused severe injuries to Mr. Baze. I not only deny my involvement, but I also condemn violence that so often mars our modern society,” Taci reacted in a statement.
The attack has been condemned by local politicians, diplomats as well as national and international media organizations.
Berisha also condemned it in a statement and asked law enforcement authorities to bring the culprits before justice.
The US Embassy in Tirana and the OSCE office strongly condemned the violence against journalists.
“Such use of violence is intolerable,” Reporters Without Borders said on Thursday. “It shows that certain businessmen who are allied with the government think they are all-powerful and do not have to account for their activities. We hail the universal condemnation this attack has received from the political class and the rapid police response, which suggests there is a will to put an end to impunity.”
“The fact that those involved in this incident are well known should help make people aware of the problem and encourage a debate about the press freedom situation in Albania,” the press freedom organization added.
The Union of Journalists association also convened with the participation of U.S. Ambassador John L. Withers and OSCE Robert Bosch.
“The alleged perpetrators of this assault are well known persons to all of us, to all of you, persons seemingly of high standing and high judgment until this incident showed otherwise,” said Withers, adding they were persons who have been the subject of Baze’s articles, in which he was quite critical of different things that they allegedly had done.
“There’s no justification in a democracy, under any circumstances or under any conditions, to use violence to silence the free expression of the press,” he said.
The ambassador said that incident had larger implications and ramifications than the simple act of the assault, adding that the test of a society, the test of a government, the test of a nation, is how it responds when those unacceptable acts happen.
Albania must prove itself worthy of membership in those great alliances (NATO and the EU).
Withers also hailed Berisha’s statement but remembered that similar violence had occurred in the past and perpetrators suffered nothing.
“It is unacceptable for nothing to happen this time,” he said allegedly referring to the court.
Withers also criticized Aleksander Frangaj, owner of the Klan private television station, a former journalist, “to seem to justify that beatings in the case of disagreements over opinions are somehow alright.”
“Do not give in to intimidation, do not give in to threats, do not give in to violence. What you hold in your hands is not simply your profession, your attempt to make a living. You hold in your hands one of the most blessed principles of democracy. Fight for it. It is well worth it. You owe it to your profession, you owe it to your country, and you owe it to yourselves,” called the ambassador.
Days later some 135 journalists condemned the violence and called on the government to stop different forms of pressure.