For more than two weeks, the leader of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, has launched a series of public attacks on the owner of News24, Irfan Hysenbelliu, as well as on several journalists' associations that reacted against these attacks. As usual in such cases, most of the DP deputies have chosen silence in the face of their leader's language.
But the most interesting in this whole story seems to be Jorida Tabaku, a DP MP and at the same time head of the parliamentary committee that covers media issues.
While he has not said a word about Berisha's continued attacks on the media and journalists, Tabaku has chosen a television program to give ethical lectures to the media itself.
In her reaction, she spoke in emotional tones about the broadcast of gruesome footage from the tragic accident in which two children lost their lives, accusing the media of spectacularizing pain and lacking professional ethics.
Her message had elements of justice, and such a debate on ethics in the media is necessary. No one can deny that the competition for clicks and audiences often crosses the boundaries of human dignity.
But the problem begins precisely at the source of this public morality.
Because it's hard to listen to lectures on media ethics from a politician who doesn't find a moment to react when her party leader publicly attacks journalists, media owners, and media organizations just because she doesn't like their reporting.
The situation becomes even more paradoxical when these lectures come from the head of the parliamentary media committee, at a moment when the media itself is under constant political pressure.
Perhaps before asking journalists to maintain ethics, it would be more convincing if Tabaku first asked its mayor to guard his language towards the media and journalists.
Because just as much as the media needs ethics, politics needs boundaries.
And perhaps advice about media freedom sounds less hypocritical when it doesn't come from people who remain silent in the face of political attacks on it.
