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RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHTI #0414/01 1541336
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 021336Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY TIRANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7138
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TIRANA 000414 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/SCE 
DEPT OF JUSTICE FOR OPDAT, ICITAP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL AL
 
SUBJECT: THIS WEEK IN ALBANIA, MAY 24-30, 2008:  THE MEDIA ISSUE 
 
¶1.  (U) The following is a weekly report prepared by Embassy 
Tirana's local staff to provide political and economic context and 
insight into developments in Albania.  With the death of one of 
Albania's most powerful media moguls, this week's issue focuses on 
the media. 
 
------------------ 
MEDIA DEVELOPMENTS 
------------------ 
 
¶2.  (U) ALBANIAN MEDIA PIONEER DIES:  Dritan Hoxha (no relation to 
former dictator Enver Hoxha), 39, father of three daughters and a 
son, died in a car accident in downtown Tirana, crashing his red 
Ferrari into a tree in the early morning hours of May 23.  Hoxha was 
President of the Top Media Group, which includes the popular Top 
Channel Television and large shares in Top Albania Radio, digital 
terrestrial TV platform Digitalb, and the print daily "Shqip." 
 
¶4.  (U) Hoxha graduated from Tirana's Technical School and attended 
university first for engineering then briefly for medicine.  Already 
an entrepreneur at heart, he recollected later what he thought then: 
 "There is too little, too slow coming here.  Gotta go!"  He headed 
to Italy, working in a video game factory, returning to Tirana to 
open a video game hall at the age of 24.  He moved into the coffee 
business in 1995 and by 1998 had captured about 20 percent of the 
Albanian coffee market with his Lori Cafe (named after his oldest 
daughter), in a country where, as the saying goes, "real business is 
done over coffee."  With Lori Cafe as the goldmine, Hoxha began 
investing in the media, remaining loyal to his motto, "If you go in, 
you go in big and seek to be number one." 
 
¶5.  (U) FIRST, THERE WAS RADIO: Top Albania Radio, with the latest 
news at the hour, music off current western charts, and popular 
shows, was soon tuned in at bars, restaurants, and in taxi cabs. 
The station became popular as far as Corfu, Greece, because of the 
modern popular music.  It continues to be the most popular station 
in Albania.  Hoxha was careful enough to put antennas on the most 
difficult mountains of Albania's rugged terrain. 
 
¶6.  (U) THEN THERE HAD TO BE TV:  In December 2001, Albanians began 
to tune to Top Channel for TV.  To date, it remains the most popular 
in Albania, in Albanian-inhabited areas of Kosovo and Macedonia, and 
among Albanian emigrants abroad.  Emigrants' condolence letters last 
week thanked Hoxha for teaching their children Albanian.  The 
region's Albanian-majority political parties run campaign ads on Top 
Channel, including for the June 1 elections in Macedonia. 
 
¶7.  (U) According to a March 2008 poll by a USG-sponsored media 
trainer, Top Channel is the favorite station for 54 percent of 
Albanians, its news is the most accurate for 51 percent of 
Albanians, and 58 percent of Albanians rated it as excellent. 
(Ratings for the next best station are in the low 20s.)  The station 
is correspondingly slick, imposing and attractive.  Hoxha, who 
likened his station to CNN or Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi's 
stations, was always on top of things.  One engineer said, "He's 
crazy. If something doesn't function, he says 'buy a new one; don't 
waste time or money to fix it.'"  He sought to hire the best 
journalists, reporters, cameramen, graphic designers, technicians, 
and sales people. 
 
¶8.  (U) The 600-force station produces some of the best and most 
popular programs.  At the top is "Portokalli," (translation: 
Orange), a comparison to the amber street light, referring to 
Albania's exhaustingly slow pace of transition, neither red nor 
green.  The weekly show ridicules Albania's problems and the elites 
who have not solved them.  Phrases used in the show easily become 
part of the daily jargon among people of all ages. "Portokalli" is 
followed by the daily "Top Show," featuring discussions on anything 
on the minds of Albanians.  Finally, "Fiks Fare," a satirical 
investigative show, is a cross between the U.S.' "60 Minutes" and 
"Candid Camera," using hidden cameras to capture public officials 
behaving badly or illegally, and highlighting problematic areas 
varying from education to water supply, health services to driver's 
licenses, and public tenders to electricity problems. During 
2003-2004, when Albania's government opposition was historically 
weak, Albanians used to say, "The only opposition in this country is 
Fiks Fare."  For the fifth year in a row, Top Channel organized Top 
Fest, a competition of young Albanian singers from Albania, 
Macedonia, and Kosovo.  For West-hungry youth, the glossy, modern 
technology, highly promoted competition is a major event, akin to 
"American Idol" in the U.S. 
 
¶9.  (U) A DIGITAL PIONEER: Digitalb was started in 2004 as a digital 
terrestrial platform, replacing analog technology, with 30 stations, 
half in Albanian.  With decreasing copyright problems, Digitalb 
turned into a well of money, claiming it has 300,000 subscribers. 
The platform has several stations of movies (subtitled), Albanian 
and foreign music, news, science, and includes CNN and the BBC. 
 
TIRANA 00000414  002 OF 002 
 
 
Qneering continued with the introduction, through the Digitalb 
platform, of HD (high definition) TV, placing Albania at the top in 
Europe in this field, and with the 2006 introduction of a mobile 
phone carrying the TV signal, new technology which placed Albania 
behind only Japan and Italy. 
 
¶10.  (U) NO ANGEL:  A young woman, 28-year old Entela Hysko, was in 
the crashed Ferrari with Hoxha, dying immediately when the car hit a 
tree and was cut in half. Police said the Ferrari was speeding at 
about 120 mph. Only a few pro-GOA outlets publicized the fact that 
there was a woman in the car.  Hysko's mother said she worked at Top 
Channel, which remained silent on her death except to say that the 
girl never worked for Top Media.  Hoxha had a passion for gambling, 
reportedly winning 600,000 euros in just one game.  He later boasted 
of the win, saying he was proud to beat the previous record, 
supposedly held by former Prime Minister (and fellow notorious 
gambler) Fatos Nano.  Rumors of involvement in criminal activity 
also dogged Hoxha, due to co-ownership of Top Albania Radio by 
former police officer and known organized crime figure Vajdin Lamaj. 
 Lamaj was killed in 2005 when his apartment's elevator exploded in 
a mafia-style attack. 
 
¶11.  (U) Prime Minister Berisha, no fan of Hoxha's due to Top 
Media's generally critical reporting of his party (both recently and 
during Berisha's time in opposition), has been almost the only one 
to publicly highlight Hoxha's alleged criminal ties.  When Top 
Channel called in 2005 for Albanians to vote against Berisha's 
Democratic Party (which nonetheless won, leading to Berisha's 
election as PM), relations between the Government and the station 
worsened.  In June 2007, tax inspectors proposed a 12 million euro 
fine on Top Channel for tax evasion.  The tax was neither collected 
nor lifted. 
 
¶12.  (U) THE FUNERAL AND THE DAY AFTER:  Hoxha's funeral was widely 
attended by the Albanian public, public officials, and Top Media 
employees, who threw flowers on the passing coffin as the procession 
went through the streets of Tirana.  A Kosovo government minister 
lauded Hoxha as a "missionary for Albanians everywhere," while 
others said he united Albanians virtually.  In 2007, one MP 
considered the station "a national asset" for its willingness to 
stand up to the GOA. 
 
¶13.  (U) With no journalistic background, Hoxha was very TV savvy. 
As a result, Albanians today say the greatest contribution of Hoxha 
to Albania and its post-communism years has been "liberalization and 
opening up of the society."  A commentator eulogized Hoxha as a "man 
of imagination and achievement, modernity and refined aesthetics, 
who through his media created an Albania to be loved, an Albania to 
have hopes for, and an Albania to take pride in."  Despite his 
faults, this controversial visionary will be missed. 
 
¶14.  (U) BAD NEWS IN THE "NEWS":  TVSH, Albania's public television 
station, is under new management with the firing of its former 
director earlier this month, Lutfi Dervishi.  The station is not 
known for modern technology or streamlined staffing, and is seen as 
a journalistic mouthpiece of the Government.  (Note: This is not the 
only game in town - Albania has dozens of TV stations that represent 
diverse points of view.)  Under Dervishi, programming had notably 
shifted from completely GOA-focused to somewhat more balanced, a not 
unwelcome change for viewers, who responded positively to less 
coverage of government activities and more on issues such as the 
social and political fallout of the ammunition explosion at Gerdec 
on March 15.  As audiences increased during Dervishi's term, he 
began to receive calls from GOA ministers complaining of unfavorable 
coverage.  Dervishi's response: "News is realistic." 
 
WITHERS