Nga Mero Baze
To: U.S. Ambassador John Withers,
EU Ambassador in Tirana Helmut Lohan,
OSCE Ambassador Robert Bosch
Honorable Ambassadors!
I hope to not inconvenience you in these days before the holidays with such frustrating news for a country, which is increasingly taking steps backwards in its respect for civic liberties and equality before the law. This is precisely the time the GOA has chosen to undertake a new discriminatory, entirely politically motivated battle. I am writing to you in the capacity of the publisher of the newspaper TemA and owner of the company Media Enter, which was my property until the end of fiscal year 2005, the time when I sold my shares 100 percent. In July 2007, the buyer of that company decided to suspend its financial activity and, together with my journalist colleagues, we continued our journalistic activity as part of another company.
In April 2008, when TemA was the first to denounce the connections of Sali Berisha’s son with the deadly business at Gërdec, the first thing that Sali Berisha did was to send an inspection team to the newspaper offices. The inspection, which spent about two weeks in the editorial offices, also inspected the company Media Enter, whose activity had been suspended since July 2007 and the other company, which had added the publication of TemA in its activities. The title TemA has been and remains my intellectual property and was never sold. It is registered as such with the licensing and patent office at the Ministry of Economy. Of course, inspections did not find any violations and departed, appearing solely as a pressure tool.
After the public appearance of the Prime Minister and his verbal attacks against what he considers the “mafia-communist cupola,” as well as the attacks against me personally by him and the Speaker of the Parliament, tax inspectors flooded the company offices again, demanding now an inspection of paperwork since 2004. The inspection was ordered by the tax office in Tirana. However, according to the law, such an inspection, i.e. a re-inspection, should be conducted upon orders by the General Director, as the company had been inspected already in April 2008. The 2008 inspectors also left a process-verbal at the conclusion of the inspection. The harshness and eyes red with hatred with which such expeditions of revenge by the Prime Minister arrive do not bother us so much, but I feel profoundly troubled that this Prime Minister, personalizing his fight with a journalist critical toward him, is misusing power selectively and is doing everything possible to see him in his knees, a fortune he will not have.
I wish to recall that one year ago this weekend, one day before New Year’s, my car caught fire in front of my children’s eyes, in the building yard, and the cause, before it was announced by the police, was determined by the DP spokesperson, while the driver of Shkëlzen Berisha had been seen for three days in my apartment building’s yard and, I even notified senior Prosecutorial officials as well as some police authorities.
Two weeks after the car was burned down, Sali Berisha surrounded with police officers the editorial office of the newspaper and its printing press, kicking us out of there forcefully. The printing press and other personal belongings are still kept there. He violated, with no right, a 20-year concession agreement, through an argument that now, one year after, is not valid.
If you wish, go to the yard of the former Military Topography grounds and you will see that between our belongings, which we invested 450,000 Euro in, and the biometric passport quarters, two other companies continue to work and nobody touches them.
During the year that is coming to an end, I personally as well as my family members have faced cruel pressure, including attacks on their legitimate belongings, ordered directly from PM Berisha’s office. This PM has personalized the fight to such an extent that, blind with primitive hatred, had declared even businessmen who he thinks are my partners to be his enemies. The most typical case is that of attacks against Artan Dulaku and Besnik Sula. On the same day that the re-inspection arrived at my company to investigate ironically the paperwork from the years when I was a supporter of Mr. Berisha – then in opposition (2004-2005), likewise, he has dispatched to the subsequent buyer of the company Besnik Sula a fine that amounts to 2 billion and 400 million Lek. He has also dispatched inspectors to all companies of the Dulaku brothers, starting from the (construction company) Edil-Al, Tring, etc.
This attack, even against businessmen who I have worked or work with in my media activity, as is currently Mr. Dulaku, makes me feel even more responsible in my consciousness, as I am becoming the cause not only of problems for my or my family members businesses, but also of my partners or collaborators. This is a racist attack, profoundly built upon revenge against an individual and that aims at surrounding and isolating him financially and politically. If I write up a balance sheet of one year in the PM’s fight against me, I will find more problems than a Jew encountered at the time of Nazism, or a “former owner” during communism.
Imagine the discriminating position my journalists and I are now on New Year’s eve when all should rejoice and celebrate, but we need to recall the problems that Sali Berisha caused in the course of one year. Imagine for one moment that the offices of other newspapers or TV stations see no inspections, no fines, and no blackmailing, while my 2004 balance sheets are scrutinized, in violation of all rules that exist regarding re-inspections in this government. Imagine for one moment that conforming and servile companies receive millions without any competition from GOA advertising, while businessmen that dare cooperate with me or my newspaper receive cruel attacks and vicious and unaffordable fines. If you add to these the mud-slinging campaign of Sali Berisha against them, you feel part of an entirely selective regime, entirely class-divided, and above all, entirely arbitrary.
Likewise, you are witnesses to the fact that I became the target of physical assaults inspired by GOA positions toward me, by businessmen who are part of the family connections of the Prime Minister. After the assault, the only person who did not dare mention the name of the violator was the Prime Minister and a few days afterwards, he exploded into a campaign of slander against me, as if seeking to inspire justice to do the opposite. Now, anyone who cooperated with me during this year, is ending a year filled with fines by Sali Berisha’s tax policy; anyone working with me is ending a difficult financial year due to the problems that Sali Berisha had taken us into; anyone who dares express solidarity with me should prepare for new problems.
I am writing to you not because you may save me from this fate I have chosen myself, but so that you clearly understand and report to your headquarters what kind of childish problems for a para-democratic society critical media and businesses supporting it face in Albania.
I am writing to you above all for a reason I am ashamed to make public. In this country, you cannot write to anyone else about injustices you are subjected to. In this country, the prosecutor’s office is on its knees when talking about Sali Berisha; in this country, the courts are on their knees when his name is mentioned; in this country, the president had become insignificant and powerless to protect Albanian citizens and businessmen; in this country, justice as a whole has turned into a weapon for witch-hunting and not hope for citizens. This government has misused all the reasons for which it should govern and I fail to find another address to send this letter to, except for you, the last guards of our western dream and the hope that someone will testify the truth about this regime, which has nothing in common with the rule of law, democracy, and our European dream.
