— Blerim Çela attacks the newspaper «Koha jonë» with all guns blazing. — Just as we had begun to uncover some compromising facts about the chairman of the State Control, there are calls for the newspaper to be shut down as unlawful. — The State Control team «attached» to «KOHA JONË» during April and early May deliberately falsifies all the figures and facts it cites in its report. — On Monday, 18 May, Radio Tirana devoted one third of its news broadcast to «Nikollë Lesi’s violations»! — Why is it being falsely claimed that Bajaziti Beci, a prosecutor at the General Prosecutor’s Office of Albania, also took part in the inspection? Or, more precisely: Why doesn’t the State Control team ask itself why the General Prosecutor’s Office has not signed their fraudulent document? — Dozens of letters from Blerim Çela seeking to block «Koha jonë», sent to various addresses. Has Blerim Çela got no other work to do, or is he concerned only with the newspaper from Lezha?! — In the dock for fraud in June should be either Nikollë Lesi or the State Control team, consisting of Bashkim Spahia and Ymer Stafa. — In the name of justice, the editorial office recently appealed to the Prosecutor General, Mr Maksim Haxhia, to send a team of experts and prosecutors to investigate the matter. — Only the newspaper «Koha jonë» is inspected several times, while the newspaper’s paper is stolen in broad daylight elsewhere. BLERIM ÇELA’S FIRST SIGNATURE, WHEN HE BEGAN INTERFERING IN THE CHAIRMAN OF THE STATE CONTROL’S ROTTEN BUSINESS. Several months ago, before the elections, at the DP conference in Lezha, we had a heated debate with B. Çela about the articles published in «Koha jonë». He called the newspaper anti-democratic and reactionary! And he told me: «If I get my hands on anything, I’ll shut down the newspaper, since you criticized me unfairly at the DP’s conference, too». That was all there was to that chance meeting with this statesman… Later, I criticized the PS again, as well as part of the DP. In fact, people told me: «Why do you need to criticize Sali Berisha? He’s vindictive», but I trusted—and still trust—that he understands sincere criticism and is not vindictive. Nevertheless, one day after Mr Çela came to power, indeed before Parliament had even confirmed him, and even more so before he had received the Easter blessing from the President, he signed his very first letter. It said: An urgent inspection team for the newspaper «Koha jonë»! So, before the honourable gentleman had even settled in, he gave an order as in the time of Julius Caesar: «Occupy it… (shut it down)!» THE ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST IN-LAW, MR BASHKIM SPAHIA One fine day in April, the State Control team arrived, headed by Bashkim Spahia, a stern, somewhat polished and, in any case, ill-omened man. I laid all the documents I had before them. On the second day, one member of the team, named Ymer Stafa, said in the presence of journalist A. Frangaj: «We’re in trouble. The order is to shut down your newspaper». When we asked where the order came from, he said nothing, but pointed his finger upward, toward the sky. We did not understand how far up they had reached an agreement with one another about our case. After that, the State Control operation began, under the title «The Lesi Case». According to the instructions of the «order-givers» on Olympus, this inspection was supposed to ensure that the newspaper was taken away from the people for good. DISCUSSION OF THE STATE CONTROL’S «FACTS» PUBLISHED BY THE STATE MEDIA After 24 days of effort, the State Control team left to report to its chief. The Control’s findings should have been brought to the editorial office and presented to the newspaper’s management. Or they could have summoned us to Tirana for that purpose. Instead, without the slightest shame and in violation of legal provisions, they communicated them to us through Radio Tirana’s news broadcasts! Nevertheless, let us respond to their accusations. 1 — IT ACCUSES ME OF HAVING BEGUN PUBLICATION OF THE NEWSPAPER «KOHA JONË» WITHOUT OBTAINING THE REQUISITE APPROVAL, AND OF ITS ACTIVITY BEING UNLAWFUL. Let me explain once again, this time publicly: The newspaper «Koha jonë» was the organ of the Lezha Committee of the PP until 18 April 1991, the day that committee stopped financing it because of a lack of funds. In the same way, there were 26 other local newspapers, like «Koha jonë». In February 1991, when RD was being born and clashing with ZP, at a meeting of local newspapers at the Central Committee of the PP, in the presence of Spiro Deda, F. Kullai, editor-in-chief of «Adriatiku» of Durrës, and I raised an issue: local newspapers should be separated from the PP, because under the arrangement that had existed until then, ZP would end up with 26 small ZPs in the districts as well. Thus, the parties’ political struggle and propaganda would not be equal. For this initiative, which I believe was courageous at the time, we received our reward: our funding was cut off. Fortunately, 20 days later, the Press Directorate at the Central Committee of the PP transferred all local newspapers to the Council of Ministers, except for Shkodër’s «Jeta e Re». «Koha jonë» was shut down. Readers and subscribers were asking for the newspaper. Under these circumstances, we convened the district branch of the Journalists’ Union, where it was agreed that the newspaper should not be shut down for financial reasons. The Executive Committee did not take it over, as it would have made a loss. It was decided that the newspaper should be answerable to the district branch of the Journalists’ Union. The Press Directorate at the Council of Ministers ordered the newspapers to be published, living on the income each editorial office could generate itself, since the state had no money at all. Most of the local newspapers then continued to appear. We were the first to submit an application to the Council of Ministers for confirmation. The delay in formal approval is not the newspaper’s fault, but that of the Prime Minister’s Office. And yet we do have official approval, while there are other newspapers that still have not been approved(!); let the State Control uncover them itself. According to the inspectors’ logic, «Zëri i rinisë», «Bashkimi», «Bashkim», etc., should also be unlawful, since they have established their affiliations. (I presented the team with all the documents concerning these issues, but they did not deign even to look at them.) 2 — REGARDING OUR DEALINGS WITH THE «MIHAL DURI» PRINTING HOUSE IN TIRANA The announcement on Radio «Tirana» says that I have not paid the «Mihal Duri» printing house the 44 thousand lek owed to it. First, your figure is wrong, or the radio announcer made a mistake. Second, you have also counted the money we owe the printing house for the days when you continued your inspection and had blocked the newspaper’s complete documentation. You are doing this deliberately to inflate, supposedly, the newspaper’s debts. But there is a basic procedure governing relations between enterprises, institutions and other entities with bank accounts—as far as I know, since I am not a financier, but I do have a head for figures. The printing house alone has to submit a collection request, together with the dispatch notes for the newspapers printed, to the bank in Lezha so that payment can be made; the state bank in Lezha then pays it from the newspaper’s funds. But this has not been done, because the printing house sends everything together for settlement once a month. So you are wrong about the figures, and even more wrong in your professional capacity as inspectors. Even though people above you had only a secondary education!! But you have been instructed by your boss to act as if you know more, because he protects you—that statesman, the esteemed B. Çela—since he holds both the stone and the nut in his hand. But don’t forget that men like that have risen and fallen from that career!?… It seems Mr Blerim Çela has forgotten our people’s fine saying: «The chair belongs to the state, but your arse is your own!» To make the State Control’s malicious intent even clearer, on 15 May 1992, Mr Blerim Çela sent a letter to the director of the «Mihal Duri» printing house in Tirana, ordering him to collect money from the newspaper «Koha jonë» even for the issues dated 30 May 1992!!! «Otherwise, you will be held legally responsible». The letter’s implication: Don’t print «Koha jonë», or we’ll have trouble—especially since this time there’s an article about me (Blerim Çela). Pressure just like in Enver Hoxha’s time! What right does this gentleman have to interfere in the newspaper’s contractual relations with the printing house, when the publisher has made no complaint? Why does Blerim Çela need to order the Directorate of Wood in Tirana, telling it «not to give the newspaper “Koha jonë” a single kilogram of paper»? Does Mr Blerim Çela know that revealing bank secrets relating to an enterprise, institution or private individual to the public is punishable under the law? THESE DAYS WE SUED BASHKIM SPAHIA AND YMER STAFA… As well as the State Control Commission itself, for disinforming the public through the media about «Koha jonë», and for disclosing banking secrecy to the public. We stress that the Control has the right to conduct inspections, take measures, etc., but not to disclose the state of the cash account; disclosing the state of the cash account publicly or privately is punishable under the law. THE RAI DUE CASE AND THE INCOMPETENT FRAUDSTER BASHKIM SPAHIA According to them, this is where Nikollë Lesi’s frauds lie! So, without boring the reader, let us begin with the documents and facts: The idea of installing a television relay for Italian channels came from the residents of the city of Lezha, who rightly asked the district Executive Committee to install such a repeater in the city, since other cities had done so. Articles about it were also published in «Koha jonë». Various readers wrote about the matter; indeed, the most accurate article was by an electronics engineer, Ram Muja. After that, the citizens persistently petitioned the Executive Committee, which had a duty to act. It had no funds, as they had been given to political prisoners. Lezha’s intellectuals repeatedly raised the issue, and journalists, associations, writers, economic enterprises and district institutions agreed to contribute to the repeater, since most of their workers had TVs and would benefit from it. The newspaper «Koha jonë» undertook to contribute a substantial sum from its own income as well, to be donated to whoever took responsibility for the television repeater. We were going to make a partial agreement about this sum at the newspaper’s editorial office. To be even more precise, two newspaper editors emphasized that…

K.1. 23.5.92 (Continued on page 2)