Blendi Fevziu was invited to the show “Të Paekspozuarit” on MCN TV, where he spoke about the fierce controversy with Arlind Qori on his show, who accused him of not inviting him on the program because he should not speak to the oligarchs.
Fevziu had a debate with Rakipi about the media, the interests of media owners and the capture of the media by politics.
Studio conversation:
Ylli Rakipi: Why did you get so angry with Qori? Who did you have it with, with Qori, with this mind m.. system, or did you feel that you had to protect Sandri?
Blendi Fevziu: I can protect anyone I think needs to be protected, but in this case it had nothing to do with the television and Sandri, but with my studio. He said you haven’t called me for so long because they didn’t let you, while he was in the studio. Politics considers itself, even these young people, they have an arrogance and think that the press should be at their disposal and follow them. No politician is more important than a journalist. In a relationship between the media and politics, a politician has no right to provoke journalists. Whether or not I get him on the show is the criterion, the audience.
Ylli Rakipi: You were citing names, Edi Rama and these others, that you don’t get on the show. But Edi Rama doesn’t come on the show himself. You went to the Presidency to the President of the Republic. You asked for ministers who never come. You told one person who needs to come out and others who don’t want to come and you say they don’t come out either. The leftists have strategies that don’t come out. We complain to each other about this.
Blendi Fevziu: No, they don’t come to debates with the DP. They ask for interviews. The Speaker of Parliament, Lindita Nikolla, has asked several times and has not come.
Ylli Rakipi: I’m talking to a colleague who has been my colleague and friend my whole life. Your life is that of a journalist.
Blendi Fevziu: Ministers are asked to come for interviews, their staffs are asked, they don’t just bring you into the debate.
Ylli Rakipi: Fevzo, who did you have it with, Qori or the system, or Sandri? A few years ago, you were ready to leave TV. I left all of this. You were ready to leave too. Who did you have it with?
Blendi Fevziu: I had it with the person. Do you think they tell me to take this or that to the studio?
Ylli Rakipi: Let’s take Qori for example. He was at the forefront of the pensioners’ protests that began to disturb the government and Rama was personally dealing with Qori. You didn’t call Qori there. Neither did TV Klan.
Blendi Fevziu: I didn’t do anything for the pensioners. I don’t know who appears in the news.
Ylli Rakipi: Fevzo, this is the media totally at your service.
Blendi Fevziu: I speak for myself. I have said that if they make my job impossible, I will leave. Just as you have left 3-4 times, I will leave too.
Ylli Rakipi: Qori told you in the studio that I am not with you, because you said I single out Arlind Qori, but…
Blendi Fevziu: Yes, but he came and said something that was not true. When I was looking at my phone during the break, dozens of messages that said things. I…
Ylli Rakipi: Are we to believe now that Samir Mane’s opponents are paying Qori, who travels by bus?
Blendi Fevziu: When I do not prove something, I do not speak. I am responsible for myself and everyone is responsible for their work.
Ylli Rakipi: Our colleague Andi Bushati wrote an article and said that “after a conflict with Frangaj” I did not step on TV Klan again. Why don’t you invite Bushati?
Blendi Fevziu: He didn’t want to come himself, he told me after this conflict it doesn’t make sense anymore. I had Bushati for a fee.
Ylli Rakipi: But he’s going to pay the oil money. You said you have the audience, God? But don’t you have the public interest? Arlind Qori is in the interest of public opinion.
Blendi Fevziu: I hired Qori when I saw it as reasonable. I don’t do newspapers or news. I have a parallel social network. Public interest is an instinct I have. I’ve avoided politicians from the studios. Shpëtim Idrizi doesn’t come to the studio?
Ylli Rakipi: Are you talking about Shpëtim Idrizi and these…
Blendi Fevziu: Have you seen MPs? It’s not like before, there’s no public interest.
Ylli Rakipi: You have a show four times a week, you have an interest in including both food and baklava. I say let’s take it a little bit off the personal. Another problem arose in your clash. You revealed the half-naked face of our media today, which we have built. We have built a big m.., which is led by some owners who do whatever they want. International institutions raise this that the media has been taken over by five families. We must say these things, because we will die without saying these things…
Blendi Fevziu: No, it does not exist. No one told me not to bring Arlind Qori to the studio.
Ylli Rakipi: You understand that Arlind Qori should not come there, period.
Blendi Fevziu: So why did I bring him?
Ylli Rakipi: Our media was built within the goals that politics and media have, it is a stinking dump. Your clash brought this out.
Blendi Fevziu: Where does my show fit in here?
Ylli Rakipi: Or you are forced to leave.
Blendi Fevziu: If they dictate and pressure that person to leave. In September 1998 when I left the VAT when I had a payment five times more than Klan, why did I leave? I had neither income nor assets.
Ylli Rakipi: The media that we have built…
Blendi Fevziu: What am I going to say? That it is my fault? If I closed the show, would the media become better?
Ylli Rakipi: No, I did not say that. But let’s say a few things.
