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Veliaj's attack campaign from prison undermines 'public trust in the media'

2025-04-07 16:15:00, Politikë CNA

Veliaj's attack campaign from prison undermines 'public trust in the

After a marathon hearing on security measures, the Special Court of Appeals announced on March 13 the decision to leave in force the measure of arrest and imprisonment for the Mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, accused by SPAK of the criminal offenses of corruption and money laundering.

The Appeals Court's decision was preceded by increased tension on the justice institutions, while SPAK offered new evidence; mainly wiretaps of Veliaj's telephone communications from his cell with his wife, Ajola Xoxa, and brother Arbër Veliaj, which were reviewed in the Appeals Court before the decision on the security measure.

Some of these wiretaps, published in recent days by the CNA portal, suggest that Veliaj orchestrated a media campaign from his cell against prosecutor Olsi Dado, first instance judge Erion Bani, and other justice officials, with the aim of easing security measures at the Court of Appeals.

"..the pressure must be maintained that Tuesday is unchangeable, so we have four days. Three days to freedom," Veliaj is quoted as saying in one of the published conversations with his brother before the Appeals Court's decision.

"Tell them to spread it as much as possible and keep the pressure on, because these four days are crucial. That is, either I leave these four days, or I stay here for four months," the document adds, adding another conversation with Xoxa.

Further, Veliaj orders his wife and brother to communicate with media executives and politicians about the continuation of the attack campaign and requests that he be informed and made available to him any article that is considered 'spicy' . They also discuss Veliaj's question-and-answer columns on television shows of important media, including national ones, while the mayor is quoted as giving instructions on how the show should be moderated, in order to avoid possible negative labeling of him.

“This audio interception reconfirms the findings of several investigations, including that of MediaLook that I direct, on the way in which important audiovisual and online media serve as loudspeakers of a propaganda mechanism set up by Mayor Veliaj,” Elvin Luku, head of the MediaLook organization and professor at the Department of Journalism at the University of Tirana, told BIRN.

"The selection of media outlets and the instructions for questions, publications and redistributions by other media outlets create the impression that Mr. Veliaj exercises the duty of "editor-in-chief" of some of them, even in the situation in which he is behind bars," he added.

Veliaj's legal representative, lawyer Ermir Beta, criticized the publication of these acts and told BIRN in a telephone conversation that he had filed complaints with the competent institutions as soon as he learned that they would be published.

Asked for comment, lawyer Maksim Haxhia, who is defending Ajola Xoxa in this case, reiterated to BIRN what he called the position of the Veliaj-Xoxa couple that "between a couple in a marriage, any intimacy can be discussed."

Media control

Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj was arrested on February 10 by a decision of the Special Court, after SPAK accused him of creating a corrupt scheme between companies or NGOs controlled by his wife Ajola Xoxa and a group of businessmen close to him with a transaction value of around 1 million euros. Veliaj and Xoxa deny the charges.

During his 10 years at the head of the Municipality of Tirana, Veliaj built a propaganda machine with the country's main television media, which published materials pre-prepared by the PR office in the municipality, with almost no editorial intervention.

The Municipality of Tirana has a team of 21 people dedicated to communication, who were engaged after Veliaj's arrest in distributing his posts from his cell, mainly oriented towards attacking the people in the justice system who investigated and judged him on his arrest measure.

Wiretaps published by CNA show that in addition to the Municipality's PR team, a number of media outlets were also engaged as spokespeople for Veliaj's defense strategy to attack the officials who had investigated and arrested him.

Elvin Luku told BIRN that many of the journalists mentioned in the audio recordings have long been attached as servants to Mayor Veliaj's propaganda.

"Mayor Veliaj is already seeking to get back the investment made over all these years in the media, some of which he considers loyal to him," said Luku.

Isa Myzyraj, the president of the Journalists Association of Albania, believes that the published wiretaps expose the dramatic situation of the media sector in the country, where Veliaj and his family members are using political and media power to blackmail justice. He points out that this situation is also helped by the fact that Veliaj's brother runs an advertising company with large clients.

"What is easily noticeable is that Mr. Veliaj and his family maintain regular relationships with media owners and senior media executives, relationships that undermine public trust in Albanian journalism and media," said Myzyraj.

According to Myzyraj, the wiretaps also expose the deep problems of massive control of the media, the compromise of some media owners and executives to the detriment of the public interest, and their use to pressure independent judicial bodies.

"The scene is clear and disturbing," Myzyraj emphasized, adding: "complete control of information is evident, where the mayor and his family manage to penetrate deeply into the editorial line and the precise timing of when Mr. Veliaj's propaganda will be published."/reporter.al 





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