Since 9 March when the first case of Coronavirus was found in Albania and 9 April, Prime Minister Edi Rama has made 407 Facebook posts and 47 hours of video giving information about the pandemic.
Muaj i kryeministrit Edi Rama në Facebook!Që nga data 9 mars 2020 ditën kur në vendin tonë u zyrtarizuan rastet e para…
Gepostet von Isa Myzyraj am Donnerstag, 9. April 2020
Journalist Isa Myzyraj analysed Rama’s methods of communicating vital information to the public. In a Facebook post, he writes that Facebook, ERTV (his own personal TV channel) and live streams with carefully chosen media have been the only way people have been able to get information on the crisis.
“It should be stressed that this is the first source of information and the first place where statements are given for everything related to Coronavirus including those who have died and the situation in the country as a whole,” he writes.
Myzyraj found that in one month, Rama made 407 Facebook posts averaging 13 a day, 2830 minutes of videos (47 hours), 2634 of live studio discussion, and 146 minutes of additional video time.
At the beginning of the pandemic, a group of media organisations and journalists, including Exit, signed a declaration raising concerns over the way the Albanian government is managing the flow of information. It accuses Rama of monopolizing information on the situation and making it difficult to gain independent information.
The Prime Minister has also been criticised by Reporters Without Borders for his bizarre pre-recorded telephone message that warned people about journalists and the media.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis in Albania, Edi Rama used Vodafone Albania to place a pre-recorded message on everyone’s mobile phone. The message would play before any outgoing call was made. In it, Rama advised citizens to take hygiene measures including protecting themselves from the media.
The message for Vodafone users, the country’s most popular telecoms network, translated as :
“Wash your hands, don’t move from your house for pleasure, open windows as much as you can, protect yourself from the media.”
According to RSF, this along with the other examples included in the statement is another “grim illustration of the fact that while journalists contribute to fighting COVID-10 they become collateral victims themselves, facing attacks by various enemies of press freedom – including, regrettably, also some governments – who take advantage of the situation by prosecuting their critics.”
