The ruling Socialist Party have lost a court case against them for using the photo of a child, without permission, in election campaign materials.
Activist Besian Pehsa, supported by lawyer Dorian Matlija, brought the case against the party after they used a photo of his minor son, taken from his Facebook page and without permission.
Pesha wrote on Facebook, “In 2019 the Socialist Party used an image of my son as a decoration in the opening of the election campaign for local elections. I took the case to court and today the decision was made for the PS to compensate my son and we as parents, to apologise, and to remove all unauthorized images from social networks.”
He condemned the use of children in political propaganda and thanked Matlija for his professional work.
The stolen image was used without permission at a rally organized by Mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj. It was displayed on a large screen in front of an audience of hundreds.
Pesha said the photo was taken in November 2015 when his son was planting an olive tree and it had nothing to do with Veliaj’s tree planting activities.
“You have to be very perverted to dig into someone’s personal archives and steal child photos from there. You must be sick to then use these images as a facade for electoral purposes,” he said at the time.
Veliaj has long used photos of other people’s children in his political propaganda while keeping his own child’s face out of the public domain. Photos of him kissing, hugging, and wrestling children, as well as being surrounded by them, are commonly used on social media.
In 2019, Veliaj’s at-the-time colleague Epidamn Zeqo shared a picture of a naked child in a fountain on Twitter. It was retweeted by Veliaj, causing outrage.
Mayor Veliaj and Municipality Employee Share Picture of Naked Minor on Twitter
Just some days ago, a video of Prime Minister Edi Rama trying to hug a toddler while the child refused, went viral on social media. The child’s family member can be seen trying to force the child to hug Rama while the child cries.
The phenomenon of using children for propaganda has also been displayed by other politicians and recently the US Ambassador Yuri Kim. In one photo from last year, she was seen inside a kindergarten with no mask, being hugged by children. At the time, restrictions were such that no one except educators could go inside an educational institution and masks were to be worn inside at all times. The US Embassy did not respond to questions on the matter.
