The Democratic Party has denounced RTSH director Alfred Peza for violating the law in dismissing journalists and staff without reason.
In a statement to the media, MP Ina Zhupa said that Peza is turning RTSH into a barracks where everyone must obey orders.
"Since the illegal election to head RTSH, on behalf of the Democratic Party, I have denounced all legal violations for the arbitrary appointment of Alfred Peza as RTSH director. He is also accompanying his position as illegal director with illegal decisions to dismiss journalists and staff without any reason, just to turn it into a barracks that obeys his absurd orders. The Union of Albanian Journalists considers such extreme decisions arbitrary and that they constitute a climate of tension, pressure and punishments against journalists, especially in the conditions when in this institution there are no union representations and dialogue structures between administrators and professional entities or employees who leave. Ricardo Gutierrez, Secretary General of the European Federation of Journalists, EFJ, wrote on Twitter that these dismissals were “alarmed” by the “arbitrary” dismissals. The concern raised by BIRN, Safe Journalist, journalists’ associations, the affected journalists themselves have our full support.” - said Zhupa.
The Democratic MP further said that Peza has filled RTSH with his former subordinates at Alpena and Ora, people with family and social ties to him, turning it into a private institution for his own cronies.
Zhupa said that Peza is installing surveillance cameras and counting glasses of water, which is not the model of a professional director.
She called on the Steering Council to restore legality within RTSH, stop unfair dismissals, and open the competition for RTSH director.
"The climate created in RTSH with the massive layoffs, the employment of people who worked as Peza's subordinates at Alpenews or Ora, people with family and social ties to him, make the situation even more dramatic. A television that is maintained with Albanian taxes is turning into a private television for the Peza neighborhoods, undermining journalism and professionalism. The director who is taken from the chairs, to the newsstand, to the festival and to the trash cans, who installs surveillance cameras and counts glasses of water, is not the model of a professional director who responds to the needs to turn RTSH into a watchable television. On behalf of the Democratic Party and the opposition, I call on the Steering Council, as a body monitored by the Parliament, to restore legality within RTSH, to stop unfair dismissals and to open the competition for director of RTSH. We also join the call of the Union of Journalists for the OSCE to monitor the situation. "Albania is declining in terms of the media freedom index and these events only worsen the situation and clearly show the political will to destroy the media and control everything politically." – Zhupa concluded the statement.
