The Editor in Chief of the Democratic Renaissance (RD), the official organ of the Democratic Party, Bledi Kasmi said that the paper kept a neutral stance in the Basha-Rama debate.
In addition, Kasmi said he made his personal opinion known in a Facebook status in which he endorsed former PM Sali Berisha, but that angered the leader of the Democrats, Lulzim Basha, who banned him from accessing RD’s website.
“He didn’t even give us any warning or communicate what was happening. It happened to all the paper’s personnel. They blocked the password of all 7 journalists and then we received a note from the administration asking us to empty our premises”, says Kasmi.
RD’s editor-in-chief says they have already launched a new webpage and accused Basha of trying to shut down the Democratic Party’s official newspaper.
“We refused to turn the paper at the service of a single individual”, added Kasmi.
The chair of the Union of Albanian Journalists, Aleksandër Çipa, said that expelling a journalist from the work environment without following a normal employment procedure is punishable by law, adding that regardless of the paper’s political affiliation, it has a legacy running for about 30 years.
