TIRANA – “The economic bomb of the crisis cannot be ignored and urgent actions should be taken in this direction. There is no room for hesitation either for small businesses, farmers, entrepreneurs or media,” has said the chairman of the Democratic Party (DP), Lulzim Basha.
Basha, considered also as head of the united opposition in Albania, made that warning in an interview on a local TV on Monday having the impact of the coronavirus on media as one of the main issues of the discussion.
According to information made available to him, most of the media outlets are forced to work with half of their capacity. “Half of media employees have been told to stay at home without salary while those who are working will get half of the wage,” said Basha, who has been very critical on the entire financial supportive package presented by the government last week.
If the informative windows start to close, it is the citizens who will suffer because such a development will be followed by lack of transparency and information, said Basha, who warned against the unilateral information which is harmful at this crisis crime.
Without mentioning any media by name, the DP head said that there is no media which has escaped the crisis. “My appeal is that media should not be left out of attention and be supported,” Basha said, adding that particular support should be given to the media employees, journalists and operators.
Another concern of him was that there is no transparency regarding the tests carried out for the suspected affected persons with Covid-19 in Albania.”We are the only country having no transparency for tests while the number of the victims and of the infected people is increasing. We know the official number, but the number of tests is very much lower compared with other countries,” said Basha.
The official balance sheet unveiled on Monday revealed that the number of tested persons during the last 24 hours was 90 rising to 1,526 the total figure of the persons tested in Albania. Meanwhile 11 new cases infected with coronavirus were confirmed during the last 24 hours taking the total number to 223 persons. Covid-19 has taken the life of 11 patients with the last fatality – a 79-year old, confirmed on Monday. /argumentum.al
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