According to several well-known Albanian news outlets such as Top Channel, BalkanWeb, and Report TV, Greece—yes, the same Greece that proudly parades itself as the “cradle of democracy”—has once again demonstrated its astonishing talent for acting like a gatekeeper of some dusty medieval kingdom rather than a modern member of the European Union.
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| Greece bans Albanian journalist Artan Hoxha, repeating its medieval-style hostility toward Albanian reporters despite claiming EU values. in a local TV Show |
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| Greece bans Albanian journalist Artan Hoxha, repeating its medieval-style hostility toward Albanian reporters despite claiming EU values. |
As Klodiana Lala reported, Hoxha was calmly traveling toward Ioannina—likely imagining coffee, not controversy—when Greek border police at Kakavija decided to recreate a scene straight out of a medieval fiefdom.
His passport was seized, he was held for an hour, and then, in an act of bureaucratic brilliance that truly deserves a museum display, Greek officers crossed out his entry stamp with a pen, as if they were monks editing forbidden scripture.
One can imagine the scene:
“You are a danger to public order and internal security.”
Translation: You wrote things we didn’t like about Fredi Beleri and the Peshkopia massacre, and that’s basically a crime in our fairy-tale kingdom of selective democracy.
The verdict?
“Non grata”—an indefinite ban, conveniently issued in early 2024, right when Beleri was running for European Parliament under New Democracy.
European Values, But Make Them 12th-Century
PS deputy Ardit Bido reacted, calling the act “an abuse of European values,” which is a polite way of saying:
How on earth is a supposed EU member still behaving like a paranoid medieval principality terrified of journalists?
But Greece seems determined to prove—repeatedly—that investigative journalism is a threat on par with plague, witchcraft, or whatever else frightened kingdoms in the Middle Ages.
Let’s recap the Greek logic:
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Report on organized crime or extremist nationalists?
→ Dangerous. -
Expose the political past of a candidate like Beleri?
→ Extremely dangerous. -
Defend the rights of Albanians in Çamëria?
→ Practically treason.
Greece’s border authorities appear to have a unique superpower:
They can detect “risk to public order” not through facts, but through sheer political convenience.
The Pattern: Fear of Journalists, Not Crime
This isn’t an isolated incident. Albanian journalists have repeatedly been stopped, interrogated, or barred for the same “crime”:
Doing journalism.
It’s almost impressive how consistently Greece manages to turn the clock back centuries whenever an Albanian reporter approaches the border. At this point, one might wonder if they guard the truth with dragons.
If Investigative Journalism Is a Threat, What Does That Say About the System?
Rather than confronting uncomfortable reports, the authorities prefer to:
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ban journalists,
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erase passport stamps,
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and scribble dramatic “X” marks like medieval scribes afraid of forbidden texts.
It would be hilarious if it weren’t so revealing.
A Final Note of Irony
For a state that constantly claims moral superiority in the Balkans, Greece seems oddly terrified of… journalists with microphones.
Maybe the real threat to “public order” isn’t Artan Hoxha or Marin Mema.
Maybe it’s the fragile political narratives that collapse the moment someone tells the truth.
Because nothing says “we fully embrace European values” like banning reporters at the border while lecturing others about democracy.