Around 230 journalists and employees of Focus Media Group no longer have access to their offices, and their salaries and social security payments are delayed, after Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama closed the TV channel News24 without a court order. This was another attack on freedom of speech and democracy in the country, BGNES reported, quoted by News.bg.
On August 11, 2025, News24 was forced to suspend its broadcasts after a police operation ordered personally by Rama. The premises of Focus Media Group, including the editorial offices of News24, BalkanWeb, Panorama and Gazeta Shqiptare, were surrounded early in the morning, and the power supply was cut. Journalists were unable to access their workstations, and broadcasting stopped completely at 7:36 a.m., only partially restored on YouTube.
The authorities cited a property dispute related to the transfer of part of the complex to a state-owned enterprise, without providing a specific legal basis or court decision to justify the sudden closure. Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha described the operation as a “primitive act of political revenge“ aimed at silencing “one of the last independent media outlets in the country“.
The regional news network SafeJournalists condemned “this serious violation“ and called for the actions to be legal, transparent and proportionate. The SCiDEV Center, through Blerjana Bino, stressed that the closure of News24 without a court decision sets a worrying precedent for the arbitrary exercise of institutional power.
Journalist and analyst Earl Murati called for an urgent response from independent state bodies, including the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) and judicial institutions, after the court decision allowing journalists to return to their jobs was not implemented.
“In no EU or developed country are journalists left outside their media company due to an administrative conflict over ownership. This is decided in court, and the court has already partially resolved this issue“, said Murati. He added that the ombudsman must react, and the silence of the institutions is unacceptable. “The News24 logo is public property that Albanians have trusted for years. This is not a personal issue, but an attempt by the state to silence the voice of News24,” he stressed.
Murati also appealed to the prosecutor’s office and the Supreme Court for immediate intervention, as the state-owned company KAYO refuses to comply with the court ruling allowing journalists to continue their normal work.
The European Union Delegation in Tirana is closely following the situation and has called for the resolution of the disagreements in accordance with the law, guaranteeing the freedom of journalists and the protection of their sources.
News24 is the third channel, after Agon Channel and Ora News, to be closed under Edi Rama’s rule. The case highlights the worrying trend of using institutional power to circumvent legal procedures, weakening the rule of law, concentration of ownership and increasing self-censorship in the Albanian media landscape.