THREE ALBANIAN’S HISTORICAL NESPAPPERS “FLAKA E VËLLAZËRIMIT, “RILINDJA” AND “ZËRI I POPULLIT”
Skopje, 30.05.2024 Today, Media and Intercultural Communication department organized a panel discussion on the topic: Albanian legacy journalism and the challenges in the new era. The panelists, Prof. Dr. Sefer Tairi, presented the history of radio and television in the Albanian language in North Macedonia, Prof. Dr. Sevdail Demiri discussed the history of newspapers in the Albanian language and Prof. Dr. Avni Avdiu presented the challenges of new media developments.
Prof. Dr. Sevdail Demiri, in his presentation to the audience, quoted the most famous businessman and investor in the world at the moment, Elon Musk, who said that we should all study history because, by studying it, we learn how to act rightly and not make mistakes in the steps that we undertake.
“The Albanian press has a great cultural and historical heritage in the territories of North Macedonia in particular, as well as in Kosovo and Albania. The beginnings of the Albanian press were marked in Italy with the first published newspaper by the patriot Jeronim de Rada in 1848, when he published the first Albanian newspaper, “L’Albanese d’Italia”. In Macedonia, the first newspaper “Bashkimi i Kombit”, was published in Manastir in 1909, “Gazeta Shkupi” was published by Jashar Erebara in 1910, and finally “Flaka e Vëllazërimit”, which survived seven decades of existence, Demiri said. He added that the newspapers that made history in Albanian teritories and were chronicles of the time such as “Flaka e Vellazërimit” in Skopje, “Rilindja” in Pristina and “Zëri i Populli” in Tirana, unfortunately are now part of history since none of them are published.
Prof. Dr. Sefer Tairi focused on the history of Albanian radio and television in North Macedonia, emphasizing that the programs of Radio Skopje in the Albanian language have been working for almost 80 years now. The first program was on January 28, 1945, when, for the first time, the Albanian word was heard in the radio program “Ju flet Radio Shkupi.” Television began on April 17, 1967, with the weekly television chronicle, which also marked the first broadcast of programs in the Albanian language in all Albanian-speaking regions of Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Presevo. Until 1994, the program was transmitted for 15 minutes. Tairi said that even though public television and radio should be at the service of society’s needs, it still has a problem with politics, which puts political parties’s interests over social interests.
Prof. Dr. Avni Avdiu focused on the challenges of new media developments as well as discussed the positive and negative sides of media evolution. He emphasized that, unfortunately, the negative sides are more present in the media, including media content, which is mainly political debates, comedy shows, reality shows, and series that do not give any meaningful message from which the public would benefit.
In the panel discussion on the topic of Albanian legacy journalism and the challenges in the new era, which was moderated by Doc. Dr. Arta Xhelili from Media and Intercultural Communication department, the first rector of MTU, Prof. Dr. Azis Pollozhani, was also included in the discussion, who said that the students of the department should learn from this great journalistic heritage and contribute to its further development in the country.