Today at 17:00, the Democratic Party is organizing a large protest rally in “Skënderbej” Square. Democrats of Tirana, supporters of the DP, and citizens of the capital, today everyone with us in “Skënderbej” Square, let us protest against the police state, the communist revanche, the informational darkness[?]. Let us celebrate the opposition’s victory achieved yesterday, and the heroic act of MPs Azem Hajdari, Vili Minarolli, Ylli Vejsiu, and Shaban Memia, who were confined for five days in a hunger strike against state censorship of the opposition. Everyone today in “Skënderbej” Square, at 17:00

The Socialists sign with heavy hearts. Politicians move from the negotiating table to the hunger-strike van. Only the PS representatives are absent. Within two weeks, a commission will be set up to monitor the political broadcasts of RTSH. The sublime hunger strike by DP MPs forces the authorities to back down. Agreement signed between the parties on the “Arbnori” amendment. Hajdari, Minarolli, Vejsiu, and Memia end their hunger strike

The hunger strike by four DP MPs entered its sixth day. This is the second time a hunger strike has been held in Albania for freedom of speech. This strike, too, is motivated by the most emancipated models of a democratic society. Perhaps many people do not fully understand it at a time when Albania is facing a thousand problems born of the communist rebellion. Perhaps the rise in taxes is more serious for Albanians, as are the criminal gangs that rob and kill on the streets—things that are different and should be considered separately. Perhaps no hunger strike has been held over these two matters because the gangs’ victims are far more numerous than the strikers could be; or rather, they themselves are the strikers, and some have lost their lives, while rising taxes have created their own contingent, who today could all be called hunger strikers. Farmers, construction workers, and police officers cannot go on strike for freedom of speech. Society has established institutions, among them political parties, which must shoulder this responsibility alongside other matters. Only institutions of this kind can erect barricades in defense of freedom of speech, and today in Albania only the Democratic Party can do such a thing. Its four MPs, confined for six days in a car opposite the symbol of the abuse of freedom of speech, RTV, are of great value to the country. It is precisely people like them who make us equal in communicating with others, equal in civilization, and equal in democratic feelings. They can go on hunger strike for something that is not as tangible as putting food on your dinner table, but which is what changes a nation; without it, people would have no way to sift their values and then use them against taxes, against gangs, to enrich their dinner tables, against regression, or against anything negative in Albania’s fragile democratic society. It is precisely this moment that weighs on the Democratic Party and secures it strong international support, despite the fact that this is not done only by Helsinki, or by some other association that has built its own boards while turning a blind eye to people facing the state’s encroachment on their freedom. At a meeting of the Parliamentary Media Commission, it was learned that TV had apparently covered all events in Albania accurately. According to the director of this institution, the protest was not broadcast because it had become a routine event, since it had been repeated for a whole month. As for accurate coverage, the DP protest was broadcast only twice, or once less than it was shown by the television channel “Euronews” itself. Those gathered had no time[?]. TV covered it half as often as this European television channel. Either these two directors are not sane, or they consider that the people who watch them are not their own[?]—only people without judgment, or servile people installed, as always, in institutions[?]. Six days of hunger strike for freedom of speech, a condition worse than a bad prison, constitute an enormous and harmful precedent in the mindset of those first seen in hotels, things[?]; it cannot be explained how four MPs, important leaders in Parliament and in the largest opposition party, with indisputable merit in establishing democracy in Albania, have been surrounded by two hundred police officers and two drones[?] that are not equal to their profession and mission. not equal to their profession and mission. Sami MEZA

VEFA - Government: horns clash in the Constitutional Court. The judges have plenty of time to think VEFA’s defense lawyer: “Article 7 is unconstitutional; the Government has no right to transfer the owner’s privileges to the administrator.” The law on borrowing is within the provisions of the Civil Code, and this allows a company to borrow money from its customers. Kondi and Çifligu claim that state control is necessary because the company has engaged in illegal borrowing. ON PAGE 5

Serious incident at last night’s DP rally The SHIK agents’ car attacks the protest leader. One of the DP supporters was hit by the car and thrown several meters away. A police officer exposes Fatos Klosi’s people ON PAGE 3

The rain did not stop the Democrats’ protests in Skënderbej Square ON PAGE 3

For more than a week, all the telephone numbers of our editorial office have been blocked by Telekom, without any explanation. Our newspaper has paid all its obligations to this institution, so there can be no pretext for blocking the editorial office’s numbers. Only political reasons remain, driving the Socialist militants at Telekom to launch another information blockade against our opposition newspaper through their tricks. We say “resume” the censorship of information because this is not the first time our newspaper’s telephone numbers have been blocked. Telekom’s managers took the same action after the violent elections of June 29. Now, for the second time, none of the telephone numbers is working. The information blackout that the current rulers are imposing on opposition activities in the state mass media is now spreading to opposition newspapers as well. It is well known that censorship of free speech is the first step in installing a neo-Communist dictatorship. After a series of political murders, including the attack on our journalist Bucsapaj, and after the non-Communist press was blocked in the south of the country, the Communist rulers are now launching a Telekom blockade. In any case, we will not beg the managers of this institution to unblock our editorial office’s telephone numbers, since it is their duty to do so as soon as possible. As journalists of the first anti-Communist publication in Albania, despite the violence and political attacks carried out by this regime, we are determined to remain steadfast in our resistance to their tricks and to stay true to our mission of defending free speech.

Today, Gafurr Mazreku at the Tirana Court ON PAGE 4

The “Xhaferri Foundation” case once again at the prosecutor’s office ON PAGE 4

In Laç, 150 case files await a hearing date ON PAGE 4

Turkey’s Foreign Minister in Tirana: Albania seeks Turkish investment ON PAGE 3