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“Youth and New Media” were at the center of discussions at the seminar “Balkan Voices”, with the support of the French Embassy in Tirana. Young people from the Balkans discussed media integrity and the role of the younger generations as actors in change in the EU and in the regional media environment.
The meeting was also attended by the Mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, who stressed that today society needs reliable media. Citing the occasion of a news that circulated on the zoo tiger portals, the mayor said that the media should not run after the clicks, diverting the debate from important topics. He also mentioned the false news that circulated a few days ago, when some portals said that the Conference League final would take place in Athens and not in Tirana.
“Only in the last week, I can tell you about the strangest news in Albania. A group of journalists, affiliated with a sports federation, said that the final of the UEFA Conference League would not be played in Tirana, but in Athens, while we were sitting at a table with the leaders of UEFA, preparing the final in Tirana. After that, no one made a balance of who the journalists were who invested in lying publicly. Due to two or three portals, Tirana has been boiling for three days from the news how many teeth the tiger of the new Zoo has, when until yesterday we did not have a Zoo at all. But, this worries me because above all I am a citizen of Tirana, then I am also mayor. “Journalism of the show, what are called ‘clickbaits’, the desire to catch clicks and deviate from the real topic, are something we should worry about today”, said Veliaj.
He underlined that the media and professionals in the field first have the contract with the truth. “Today we need trusted media sources, who are accountable to politicians, who tell the truth to society, who conceive real debates on concrete issues, which are worth debating and involving the whole society. Today there is television in Albania and the Balkans, where one day the mayor is the most successful man, and the second day, if he has not given a tender to the owner of the television, he emerges as the biggest criminal. This happens before our eyes. Today we have televisions in Albania, even in the Balkans, which are owned by drug traffickers. Today there are journalists who are ready to talk about everything, but not about the workplace where they work. How can a drug trafficker have television in Tirana, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Skopje? “Genuine journalism first has the contract with the truth, then with the one who gives it the salary”, said Veliaj.
The mayor said the media could not be used by others as a means of imposing fines on honest businesses. “You read a news item on a portal that can have hundreds, thousands of clicks, and you see how it goes to a mobile phone company every day. The next day on that portal you see the logo of the company that offered the ad. He reads how a supermarket falls and the next day the supermarket banner appears on the portal. This is a fine! It does not matter if they impose a fine with a mask, with a gun, by raiding a store, or through a portal. It’s a fine! It is the taking of financial goods by force or pressure, without one’s will. This is happening all over the Balkans and it is a shame. We can not make peace with this reality, nor with the false news, nor with the alternative facts, nor with the fine, nor with the raid, which is done to the public and the truth, by people who have a criminal past and today we we honor and invite them to our receptions, we make them honorary consuls, while they are drug traffickers “, he said.
Hubert Perr, Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to Albania, underlined that the European Union strongly believes that confident and capable young people, together with independent media actors and reliable information, can contribute to a more prosperous region. democratic and pave the way for EU integration.
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