By Andi Bushati
The publication of Veliaj’s wiretapped conversations in prison showed us, among other things, that SPAK, just like the political parties, or even the acting mayor of Tirana himself, has a strong media machine at its disposal. If we rewind the film a little, in the days when Erion Veliaj was going to appear before the appeals court to assess the measure of arrest and imprisonment against him, a real fortune exploded in the public. Its essence consisted of what was called new evidence, which would nail the most famous arrestee of Albanian politics to prison. Reporters appeared from the railings of SPAK, broadcasting the horrors of these wiretaps live. In the headlines of television and newspapers, this fable was taken for granted, dedicating a space beyond the normal. In a way, we at Lapsi.al also fell victim to this general atmosphere, talking about these new facts that could put Veliaj in prison, even though we had not seen, touched or read any of them.
Today, when “Lali’s” conversations with his wife and brother are coming to light one after another, the truth is turning out to be different from what was sold on March 11, 12 or 13. In the communications made public, a tendency to exert political and media pressure on judges or prosecutors is indeed seen, but there, apart from drawing the well-known perverse-ridiculous character of Veliaj, no blatant evidence is observed. This conviction becomes even stronger if you carefully examine the dialogues. There, both the prisoner himself and his family members who are outside show that they are aware of the fact that they are being wiretapped. So they would not give either SPAK or GJKKO the gift that would extend their arrest.
Now that the situation is clearer and we are more or less familiar with the content of the wiretapped conversations, we can naturally raise the question: why was their weight inflated and exaggerated? How did it happen that it was accepted to talk about “nail evidence” without reading them? Who were those reporters who reported from the ledge of SPAK the “shocking facts”, which were not at all like that?
All these questions lead to the conclusion that was stated in the first sentence of this article: that of the existence of a powerful propaganda machine used by SPAK.
This organization has its own reporters who have the exclusivity of the truth, but who also accept to put “fake news” on the market in its favor. Secondly, it has the army of opinion makers who comment and blow up in the television studios the “facts” reported by the former. If you add to these the supporters of political parties who support, without going through the filter of suspicion, any kind of accusation that circulates about their rivals, the manipulative mechanism becomes complete. More or less with the same characteristics as in the case of Veliaj, it is put into action for every high-ranking blow. Yes The same happened when the suspicious isolation of Sali Berisha had to be justified. The same technology acted to justify the arrest of Ilir Meta.
But the most perverse efficiency of this Orwellian machine shone with all its capacity in the case of the attack on the elected mayor of Himara, Fredi Beleri. When someone raised the question of the lack of evidence, another always appeared to answer that there should be no rush because then unprecedented disasters would arise. When the former spoke of a political order against SPAK, the latter immediately responded with the cliché of the anti-Albanian who had desecrated the flag with an eagle and wanted to give Northern Epirus to Greece.
In all cases, the motto has been the same: the opinion must be instilled that SPAK is right, emotions must be played with to silence the voices of those who have doubts about the depth and accuracy of the evidence provided by the special prosecutors.
In these conditions, when it has already been proven that SPAK has brought out its army of propagandists and manipulators on the playing field, the question arises of how legitimate this is and what long-term consequences it produces.
A momentary thought leads one to reason that SPAK is within its rights. That in a playing field, where cold, independent and reasonable voices are almost completely absent, that is, in this arena dominated by manipulators and de facto spokesmen of the major parties, the Special Prosecution Office should also throw its soldiers into battle. Otherwise, without this perverse game, it would be publicly massacred. So when it has to face the Berishists who seek to preserve the image of their leader intact, or the Rilindaists who do not accept the sins of Tahiri, Beqe, or Veliaj, SPAK should also use the same weapons as them. In Western countries, it is not taboo for prosecutors in major cases to fight in the media arena as well as in the courtroom. And this has often helped them win cases. SPAk has done more or less the same here, and this is one of the reasons that keeps it high in credibility surveys, no matter how dubious they may be.
But, this type of strategy when it becomes the norm produces a problem. Because unlike political parties that have their own camps of protagonists at their disposal, the goal of justice is not measured by votes or popularity, but by the ability to discover facts and to go to the end of the truth. So SPAK was not established to sway people with illusions, but to produce evidence and results in their favor. By emphasizing the former more, to the detriment of the latter, it seems that SPAK is being affected by “Lalë-ization”. It is adapting to the motto of its most spectacular victim, that what matters is not the work it does, but the way it sells it in the eyes of the people. And relying on this mindset carries the risk of increasingly weak prosecutors: the more unfounded the files, the louder the screams of the scoundrels who scream in the studios, about the serious evidence found in them, the more unfounded the accusation, the louder the media noise.
This very fable seems to have been repeated with the “scandal” of Lali’s wiretapping, which before his appeal process, was sold for something it wasn’t. Therefore, this is giving the supporters recruited by him the opportunity to reinforce the alibi that they are keeping him inside without evidence. /Lapsi.al
