With the ironic sentence "What Time Are We Living ...", from which I was inspired for the sake of truth, ended a Blitz.al article addressing the collision of Class Magazine with Jamie Shehu and unfortunately we live in a time when the media has either not realized its power, or is misusing it. Although we entered a new decade, three media scandals made me realize that we were probably going backwards.
I imagine what would have happened in the world, at least in the European countries with which we have long sought to unite, if a sketch on national television were to discriminate against a particular community. However, nothing happened in Albania. In California, a character who apparently strives to be a stereotype of a gay individual was told that "it was for Hell." The Law on Protection from Discrimination correctly stipulates that the principle of equality with respect to gender, race, color, ethnicity, language, gender identity, sexual orientation, political, religious or philosophical beliefs, economic standing, etc. is to be respected. In addition, the Audiovisual Media Authority points out that one of the fundamental principles of audiovisual broadcasting activity is "the unbiased respect for fundamental human rights and freedoms".
I said all this to emphasize that there is a law and a regulator that strictly prohibits discrimination - although it does not work. However the issue goes beyond law enforcement and is much more problematic than that.
At a time when studies in different countries show that 1 in 5 LGBT + youths attempt suicide because of discrimination, how is it possible to promote such sketches? What is the message of the sentence "you are for Hell"?
Let me also clarify something before moving on to another issue. This is not about coffee talk. Olsi Bylyku, Julian Deda, or anyone else who disagrees with homosexuality, is homophobic and believes only in heterosexual marriages, can continue to think alike, does not harm anyone. But the moment these "conversations" are broadcast on a television that is watched by teenagers and teenagers who happen to be gay, then I'm sorry to admit, but we're back. Let it be gay with humor, but without hate speech, otherwise let's admit that we are headed in the opposite direction to the world in which Pope Francis himself has accepted homosexuality.
We now move on to another scandal, as problematic as the first. Treating rape as something normal. You probably have read about Butrint Immer's statement in Prive, where he said, among other things, that a friend of his had tried to have sex with a girl by removing himself as Butrint. So rape through cheating, Butrinti treated it as "extreme funny".
Like homophobia in California, the issue goes beyond Butrint as an individual because it doesn't matter who said it, but what and where he said it.
For the sake of truth, there were few media outlets that addressed the situation at hand. Some treated it simply as reporting, some received a copy paste of Anabel.al's article citing the source, while others did not.
Rape remains rape against as many #butrinters as we can feel, we can't bypass it. To tell you the truth, I was expecting a reaction or public apology from an artist well-liked by more than 849,000 followers, among them young girls and boys. Maybe he didn't know that rape through fraud is called rape, but even the laughing attendees didn't know it? Not even anyone from the post-production knew?
However, maybe in a few months this story will be forgotten and people will be dealing with Butrint songs. I hope at least it doesn't repeat.
We arrive at the next scandal: The Clash between Class Magazine and Jamie Shehu. Shockingly, as long as the post came from Class, a magazine that has long been followed by the "sweet" style of writing. In Class Magazine the characters are rarely criticized (or criticized at all), let alone bullied using terms like "Nickname", "gag".
As I have said in this article , it takes no more than two neurons to understand that the post about Jamie and the one about Lion and Navy - where the latter compares Italian and Arab beauty to the "crazy" Dubai sheiks. Albanian shoebox girls - stunned by the fact that Jamie and Marina ironed / humored the fact that Alketa changed a lot of dresses during the "Song Festival".
To clarify something, Marina ironed / humored "California", which means maybe the other party had to deal with the screenwriter who prepared the skeleton? If Jamie was joking / ironic in Story, maybe he has the right to do so for a national festival and Jamie, like all of us, pays taxes for the Festival?
Maybe it's Alketa Weysiu talking through Class Magazine, maybe Alketa is not aware of all the viciousness that a so-called Jesse is making - the site manager on Instagram. I don't know, but the media cannot be personalized anyway and we have to get used to it. Class is really owned by Weiss, but is not there to pass on insults, hate speech and bullshit for a joke / irony made with or without purpose.
Not to mention the fact that Class Magazine - a feminist media - distinguishes between Arab and Italian beauty, at a time when influencers and celebrities are trying to emphasize that "beauty" has no standard because it is another matter and deserves to be to be treated separately, I want to point out that besides the fact that the media cannot be personalized, perhaps public figures need to learn to respond and respond with dignity. Remember that if we are offended, we do not mean we are right.
From all I have said, many questions naturally arise: What do we need motivational items for women when we do not know how to deal with each other? What do awareness-raising campaigns do when the media broadcasts without any problem homophobic, discriminatory content that violates the fundamental rights of the individual? Are we not progressing as much as we claim? Maybe.
However, the time has come for the media and public figures to be more responsible for what they choose to broadcast to the public, which happens to imitate them. "Don't say or do anything you wouldn't be proud to put on a billboard with your photo," says Erin Bury. Apply it to the media.
