Veliaj's paid PR as an instrument for manipulating public opinion

The British law firm "Mishcon de Reya LLP" and the American law firm "Kasowitz LLP", which claim to represent the Mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, published a report on Tuesday claiming that he is being held in prison unjustly.

The report, which begins with a quote from Alistair Campbell – former media advisor to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama – claims that Veliaj's detention violates the European Convention on Human Rights.

A summary of this report, emphasizing Veliaj's 'unjust arrest', was published that same day on several media networks of the American studio in a mechanism known in the field of communication as a public relations (PR) operation.

Initially, the news about this report was published on a website (prnewswire) that offers paid services, such as PR articles, a practice already known in the world, and then, citing the studio as the content provider and attaching the link to this portal, it was also published on two local TV channels - part of the well-known American media network Fox.

Although on the fox5sandiego and fox56news channels the publication suggested that it was not a news item produced by the editorial staff, but was a press release provided by the Kasowitz LLP law firm, in some Albanian media positioned close to Veliaj, the headlines suggested that the report in question was being 'echoed' by a major American media outlet.

“'Fox News echoes Veliaj's law firm news: Arrest of a democratically elected person, unjustified,” wrote a newspaper in Tirana.

Mayor Veliaj has been under the security measure of "prison arrest" since his arrest on February 10 by order of the Special Court Against Organized Crime and Corruption, as he is suspected of involvement in corruption and money laundering, through a network of companies and NGOs linked to his wife, Ajola Xoxa.

Immediately after his arrest, he launched an aggressive denigrating campaign in the media against the prosecutors and judges in his case, culminating in a protest by municipal employees and his supporters in front of the doors of the Special Prosecution Office, SPAK.

Prime Minister Edi Rama also attacked SPAK's investigation into the mayor and even addressed criticism of prosecutors and judges, but quickly changed course in the public narrative by 'forgetting' what he called Veliaj's 'prison without trial'.

But Veliaj himself seems not to have given up on PR operations, which for communication experts, although completely legal, is being used to manipulate public opinion.

“This is a classic case of a paid public relations operation,” says Erlis Çela, a professor of media and communication at Beder University in Tirana.

"The goal here is to build an alternative narrative and influence public perception of Mr. Veliaj's case," he added.

Çela also suggests that we are dealing with "a communication strategy that crosses the line into a form of disinformation."

"The use of international PR to influence domestic public opinion, through channels that are not directly verifiable by Albanian citizens, is a form of political communication that exploits the lack of transparency and becomes an instrument for manipulating public opinion," explained the communications expert.

According to him, the international media coverage has been used to guarantee a kind of legitimacy for Mr. Veliaj's claims and the narratives he has supported in the public discourse. And the problem lies when this strategy is combined with biased or unconfirmed information.

In this case, Çela argues, "the Albanian public is indirectly offered a biased narrative, based on untruths or half-truths, using foreign media initially and then a network of local media."

For Ervin Luku, a journalism professor at the University of Tirana and director of the Medialook center, Veliaj's entire paid media operation is a legitimate practice - despite the fact that the Albanian media has speculated on the name of Foxnews, without clearly citing the source of the information.

"Publishing news even for a fee is a well-known practice in international media, as long as the latter also indicate the source of the news," says Luku, taking as an example the fact that the Fox News affiliate that published it, which at the top indicated that the source of the news was the Kasowitz LLP law firm, close to the arrested mayor Veliaj.

But, meanwhile, the way this news was broadcast in the Albanian media has not maintained this standard because, according to Luku, "the focus of their reporting has been on the fact that a major American media outlet like Fox News, also known for its pro-presidential stance, has published a report in which the detention of an elected politician like Erion Veliaj is defined as unjust."

"Meanwhile, there have also been media outlets that quote Fox News that have devoted space to the unjust arrest of Mayor Veliaj, without attributing the source in the title. But in this case, we are dealing with information that plays with speculation, but the finger should be pointed at the professionalism of the media, not at Mr. Veliaj," concluded Luku.

The Supreme Court is expected to reassess the security measure against Veliaj on July 8.

/BIRN