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OP-ED

The hypocritical mourning for Top Channel and the hypocrisy that forgets Rama and points out Berisha

Politiko 2023-03-28 19:00:57

The hypocritical mourning for Top Channel and the hypocrisy that forgets Rama

Alfred Lela

Among all the possible tracks for the shocking event on Top Channel, I am sure of only one thing: there is no Sali Berisha finger! In perhaps minutes of reminiscence, the Doctor can be caught thinking of Giulio Andreotti's brilliant statement, 'I have been accused of everything in this country… since the Punic Wars'. If you look at the Media Guard near Rama, they almost accuse Berisha of inspiring the Top Channel assassination if he didn't.

That crime and public shock for two reasons: a poor Albanian was killed and had nothing to do with the event, and the leading media in the country was hit, one of the two private national televisions, a medium which, despite the small glimmers of envy or jealousy that you can make up, remains the most significant foundation of making television in the Albanian transition.

Declaring the conflict of interest, being one of the people on the close team of Mr. Berisha, I have to anchor myself to logic and the hope that, perhaps, people judge others by what they say and not who says it. If we keep this principle, we will agree; otherwise, each in his work, but no work done awaits us the door of the agreement of what we call a 'public matter.'

Because Top Channel is a public thing, a public interest, although privately owned. The attitudes of public figures, whether political or not, are just as public.

Sali Berisha had a position regarding the developments on Top Channel a few days before the event, as he also had one in the morning a few hours after it. As the head of the Albanian opposition, he has spoken about an event of importance and public interest, the sale of the leading television in the country. If he did not speak, he would have to "answer" in front of hundreds of thousands of Albanians, who for years have been watching his "media", Facebook or TV appearances, all the events that constitute news in Albania (of course, also those that include political interest for him and his party). If Top Channel may have preferred to keep quiet about selling an asset they consider private, executives should know that their property is also a public good.

Targeting Berisha as a catalyst for the attack is intellectual hypocrisy, and complaining about Top Channel's episode, ignoring the essence of the event, is hypocritical mourning. This time "Saliu is not to blame" because, for 10 years, he has been in the opposition and surrounded by political plots that make the Top Channel incident look like a play station game on the couch in front of the screen.

Compared to the one on whom the blame should fall because he is the Prime Minister, his language concerning journalists compares Harry Truman to Donald Trump regarding aggressiveness and transgressiveness. Trump, "this enemy of civilization," is a medal that goes to Rama.

A few months have passed since the prime minister's status, when Top Channel was contextualized as a "penalizer." Less than that has passed from a seasonal virus, which broke out a "hot war" in the relations between the most powerful man in Albania and the most influential television.

What is Berisha doing here, or anything that interests, political or whatever, does not allow us to explain correctly? Do we package it as 'Sali's fault'?! The owners of the televisions are within their right of ownership to squeeze the opposition into a corner for a minute in the news editions, even less than the chronicles for any spectacle produced by them. But nothing prevents observers from recognizing that the opposition, the national televisions, the government, and the debate are in the public interest.

If we ask to give up this foundation of city life and democracy, we give night and freedom to those who fired a gun against Top Channel. And unfortunately, we appear as their opponents, but we are proponents.