Private television station says attack is politically motivated due to critical views of the government
TIRANA, March 20 – Top Channel, a private television station and media group, has strongly reacted this week, following a verdict of the Appeals Court on its move from a building downtown capital Tirana which it uses as its primary studios.
The TV station says that the move was promoted, urged or even “ordered” by the Democratic Party-led government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha just three months ahead of the June parliamentary polls as they are considered as media outlet that is critical of the government.
They did not contest the fact that the building belongs to private owners but they said the former economy minister, Genc Ruli, made the surprise decision in his last day at that post and without taking into consideration at all the fact that they had already signed a lease contract until 2025.
Top Channel is a private media outlet that has always been critical of Berisha and his government and which is now considered to be pro-opposition. Nevertheless the owners and managers have made it clear that they will always be in opposition with any government.
A few years ago, the government also decided to move Top Channel’s main offices from the Pyramid, as the building, former museum of the late communist dictator Enver Hoxha is called, would turn into the grounds for a new parliament.
Top Channel is building its new studio in the outskirts of Tirana.
They said the government wants to move them as a form of pressure ahead of the polls in June and could not wait until they finished their new studios.
An Association of Journalists also raised its voice to consider the government’s move as a political pressure on a private media.
The Albanian media has always been under pressure during the post-communist period.
On one side, they are considered as private but usually they are linked to one or the other political side. Their owners, businessmen, use the media outlets sometime as a barrier to government pressure, and other times as a big hammer to press on different issues.
Albanian post-communist media has undergone a total change. But the existence of so many newspapers, TV stations and radio stations (Albania, with a population of 3 million, counts approximately 300 media outlets) also shows the media market is still not a stabilized one in this tiny western Balkan country.
Journalists and media in Albania are facing constant and certainly “significant” pressure from the government and business.
