Prime Minister Edi Rama has spoken harshly against journalists who attempted to ask him questions about the ‘Ndrangheta wiretap scandal and alleged links to his government.
During a televised debate, Rama called journalists “incompetent” and “malicious”. During the hour-long show, here are some of the comments he made:
– “You’ve been bewildering people for over ten days.”
– “You’ve poisoned the people with all sorts of stories.”
– “How can you feed the people with this dirt and rubbish?!”
– “Hey lady, do you even understand the Albanian language?!”
– “Your way of fallacies is disgusting.”
– “You’ve been selling garbage to Albania for a week.”
– “There is a scary lack of patriotism in the way you see facts”
– “Your hearing range is so low it is astounding. Your persistence level on the wrong trait is so high.”
– “These people speaking on a mic are behind the biggest wrongdoings in Albania.”
– “You’re wasting the time of Albanians by splashing this repelling dish of stupidity and villainy to their face.”
– “Pack up the wiretaps of mythomaniacs and delirious Italians.”
– “Take advantage of these wiretaps and then puke online or on TV screens and make Albanians feel sick to their stomach.”
– “Using and serving this scum as food to Albanians just for a few more likes, it’s a disgrace but also the incarnation of those who supply this approach and whose priority is to wreck this country.”
– “Those who fight the Mafia, by hanging out on the couch like a satisfied pig, and feed Albanians every hour, every night with nonsense while acting as experts of the fight against organized crime, are the most corrupted and most incriminated people than everyone else.”
– “This is spectacular evidence of the current situation of the opposition and media.”
– “You get pieces of papers from the wiretap files in Italy, bring them here and make a mess with hearsay.”
In his eight years as Prime Minister, Rama has become known for his frequent and public attacks on journalists. Despite calls to change this rhetoric from local and international NGOs, journalists, and organisations, he continues in the same vein.
You can find a non-exhaustive list of insults used against journalists here.
