The center bloc discusses the President’s mandate after the next elections photo ARMANDO BABANI Berisha before and after the elections Neritan Ceka: “We will remove him” Skënder Gjinushi: “We will show him mercy” Socialist Party: “Berisha’s fate depends on the election results” page 4

Press statement by publishers Nikollë Lesi and Aleksandër Frangaj The violence and pressure exerted by the Albanian state against “Koha jonë” are growing day by day toward an increasingly negative extreme. For months it has been attacked and harshly targeted on every front. In addition to repeated bans and arrests of journalists by the police, confiscation or destruction of work equipment (cameras, cassette recorders, etc.), defamatory accusations by segments of power about imaginary funding intended to denigrate us, one method has been used with very great efficiency: financial destruction and blockade. The Albanian public and the foreign public are now aware of the massive blocking of the vehicles of the press transport company “Press Transport”, which is financed by “Koha jonë”. By inventing the most varied pretexts and also taking advantage of the tragic event of the explosion in Tirana, the police have so far blocked more than 15 vehicles of this company, 9 of which continue to be “property” of the Ministry of the Interior. In these conditions, in order not to interrupt the transport of 27 newspapers, we are forced to use taxi vehicles at the very high market rates, which has caused a major financial loss estimated in thousands of dollars. Seeing that the state is not giving up these arbitrary actions, on the contrary, is escalating them further, and in order not to endanger the normal continuity of the newspaper “Koha jonë”, as publishers we have decided to stop financing and close the artistic and cultural newspaper “AKS” and the sports newspaper “Sport Ekspres”. We created these two newspapers with the good intention of serving as much as possible the spread of cultural, artistic and sporting values in the country, even though, due to the very scope they covered, they were financially loss-making newspapers. The cessation of financing and their closure, although regrettable for us as creators and publishers, is done to compensate for the losses caused by the police’s repeated blockades of the press transport company. Nevertheless, while apologizing to all readers of both newspapers, we want to clarify that it is not we who are shutting down the newspapers, but the state. And more than the publishers, in this case it is the readers who will pay the cost of the state’s campaign against the free press.

Official reply comes back: PS is also denied Skënderbej Square for protests against crime Gjinushi: The 26 February explosion is being politicized by the PD Official reply comes back: PS is also denied Skënderbej Square for protests against crime State: No anti-terror rally by PS Gjinushi: The 26 February explosion is being politicized by the PD page 3

Court: Ylli Polovina should remain in prison Yesterday at the Tirana court, journalist Ylli Polovina There is no change in the measure for the well-known journalist Ylli Polovina, arrested and convicted by a decision of the Court of First Instance in the capital, detained and declared tragic, on 26 February at the supermarket of the “VEFA” company where 4 people were killed and 27 others were wounded, the journalist is accused of an article published by him three months earlier in which it is “alluded that the bomb thrown in Skopje on 3 October when Gligorov was shot at could be repeated in Tirana” page 2

Declared “Miss Shkurti KJ” page 18

Addressed to friends, supporters, as well as private companies In conditions where the state, through the Ministry of the Interior, has blocked all the vehicles with which “Koha Jonë” and 28 newspaper titles are distributed, in conditions where the police refuse to release us any vehicle, in conditions where every day the “KJ” newsroom is forced to take taxis at a total cost of 980 dollars per day to distribute the press, as well as the financial loss caused by the press being estimated at around 94 thousand dollars just for the months of January and February; we are compelled to address you, friends, supporters, owners of private companies: Help us with vehicles to distribute the newspapers until our state gets over its anger with the free press and especially with “Koha Jonë” and releases our vehicles.