At a Media Forum for Southeast Europe in Tirana , the Prime Minister, Edi Rama, focused on the problems that appear especially in " online " journalism.
Rama mentioned the government's initiative to regulate the " online " media, but said that it was withdrawn because the situation got out of control due to the way the issue was being handled.
However, Rama stated that he continues to support the idea that the media should be regulated through laws, not believing in self-regulation.
Rama said that there are still people who do professional journalism, but the concern is that they have a free hand to spread lies and half-truths. Rama took as an example the recently signed agreement with Italy, about which he said that many untruths are also being told.
"A few years ago we had some extraordinary confrontations due to the efforts of our political party to regulate the 'online' media, and this effort continues to follow me like a shadow. In the sense that even though we pulled back and gave it up, not because I changed my mind, but because it brought about a kind of out-of-the-ordinary dispute that ran counter to what we wanted to fix, the answer at the time was that we need self-regulation. It's been a while since we've had self-regulation. There are people who do professional journalism and others who think that by being a journalist, they have a free hand and can do whatever they want. And the number of lies, spreading of half-truths is extraordinary", said the head of the executive.
Prime Minister Edi Rama at the Media Forum for Southeast Europe mentioned some of the epithets that have been given to him by the media, such as "pedophile, homosexual, which I am not against, criminal, thief, murderer, sexual abuser, rapist of women". Regarding these epithets, he said that his skin has become like a bunker.
He even jokingly said: " When I started this job, all my hair was black, now I can't find any black hair anymore, there are fewer and fewer of them ".
He mentioned that he does not agree to an equal world in the field of journalism, when all the Prime Minister shows the reasons for withdrawing from the law: The situation got out of control for the way the issue was handled, whatever they want.
"Why should this be an equal world of journalism that means throw in what you want and then self-regulate, what about the people who are harmed by this thing? Oh me, I don't want to know, because my skin has become like the concrete of an anti-nuclear bunker. Pedophiles, homosexuals, criminals, murderers, sexual abusers, rapists of women, I've been told all these things, I'm waiting for the fix itself. When I started doing this, my hair was black, now I can't find any black hairs anymore, the teeth I have are not what I had in my plan for me anymore, which was a dentist. Self-regulation, we definitely expect and then the state has to pay", said Rama.