Lexojeni në shqip: Forca pa emër dhe pretendimet pa prova të publikuara
Two questions keep returning in the coverage of the protest: who are the people without uniform using force in the street, and are the dangers cited as the reason for deploying the special forces real? In both cases, the headlines offer strong claims and few answers. This article measures how often these claims appear, who makes them and what was made public afterwards.
In brief
- 56 headlines report plain-clothes, masked or unidentified people using force, or the responses to it. The peak is on 15 October, with 17 headlines.
- Two thirds of them (37 of 56) come from Syri and Balkanweb. Report TV has none.
- The uncertainty also endangers people with no part in it: 6 headlines describe protesters attacking someone they suspect of being a plain-clothes officer.
- Two serious security claims, "armed persons" and a "drone with explosives", are cited as the reason for deploying the RENEA special forces. By 21 October, the headlines we monitored report no evidence for either.
What the data show
1. Force without a name
The reports begin on 13 October and surge on 15 and 16 October, when high school pupils join and the protest spreads beyond Tirana. They describe several kinds of scene (headlines are our translations):
- Detentions by people without uniform. "Student violently snatched in the street, unidentified plain-clothes men push him into a police van with no logo" (Syri, 15 October). In Korçë, "With no identification at all, they arrest and drag minors away" (Syri, 16 October).
- Damage by unidentified people. "Unidentified people smash the windows of the dormitory at Student City, fear among the young: They are not protesters!" (Balkanweb, 15 October). The police, for their part, say there were "masked protesters" at Student City (RTSH, 16 October).
- Masked people near institutions. On 18 October, after protesters break the windows of the Socialist Party headquarters, "people with masks and clubs come out of the headquarters and attack protesters and journalists" (Ora News). On 20 October, "Masked people come out of the Interior Ministry and walk through the police lines. They pose as protesters" (Balkanweb).
The police have given some answers. On 16 October they confirm that the "civilians" in one video are "Criminal Police officers" (RTSH) and deny another claim about a girl detained by plain-clothes men (A2 CNN). The police also report the suspension of 6 officers and one public order chief within 4 days, while the Internal Affairs and Complaints Agency (AMP) opens investigations (Report TV, 17 October). The Ombudsman reports "unidentifiable civilians" among the complaints (Balkanweb, 16 October). For the masked people at the Socialist Party headquarters and at the Interior Ministry, we found no official explanation in the headlines we monitored.
2. The serious claims and what was made public afterwards
| Date | The claim | Who makes it | What was made public by 21 October |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Oct | "Armed persons" among the protesters, the reason RENEA was deployed | State Police | The police explain the information came from "a phone call to the operations room". No headline reports weapons found or arrests for weapons. |
| 18 Oct | A "drone with explosives" neutralised two days earlier, that "would have hit the Prime Minister's office"; "a foreign hand" | Prime Minister | No headline reports who sent it, where it was stopped or any evidence shown in public. |
| 16 Oct | A flat with pyrotechnic material "suspected" of supplying protesters | Police | A 24-year-old is arrested; the material is seized. The link to protesters remains a police suspicion. |
| 19 Oct | A warehouse with drones, slingshots and metal balls for protesters | Police | A 23-year-old is arrested; Report TV reports 239 drones and more than 450 smuggled items. The link to protesters is a police statement. |
The table shows two kinds of claim. The last two come with an arrest and seized items: the evidence can be tested in court. The first two, which are the most serious and which are cited as the reason for the special forces, come with no public evidence in the headlines we monitored.
A useful comparison: on 19 October, when institutions in several cities receive bomb threat emails, the police publish within the day where they came from (an address in Saudi Arabia). So in that case the police shared the information quickly. This makes the lack of public information about the drone and the weapons more visible.
Claims without evidence also come from other sides. A statement quoted by ABC News on 14 October says that "the masked people are members of the PD's paramilitary group". A protester quoted by MCN on 16 October says there were "individuals speaking Serbian" among the police. No evidence was published for these either.
Why it matters
Without identification there is no accountability. A uniformed officer with an identification number can be complained about, investigated and, if needed, punished. A person without uniform or markings cannot be traced. The suspensions and the AMP investigations show that accountability works when the person is known; it does not work when the person is unknown.
Uncertainty endangers everyone. When protesters do not know who is a police officer, they begin to suspect anyone. Six headlines describe protesters attacking a person they believe to be a plain-clothes officer, for example: "Incident among protesters, they thought he was plain-clothes, chase him and attack him" (Report TV, 19 October). The risk falls on officers, on passers-by and on the protesters themselves.
Unverified claims change the measures. The weapons and the drone are the stated reason for deploying RENEA against crowds that include teenagers. In a television debate reported by TV Klan on 19 October, one speaker says: "RENEA is for killing criminals, not for facing teenagers". If the danger was real, the public has a right to know; if it was not, it has an even greater right to know.
Other possible explanations
- Plain-clothes policing is a lawful practice. The Criminal Police often work without uniform, and in some videos the "civilians" appear together with uniformed police. On days of violence against the police (192 officers injured by 21 October), officers without uniform may be used to identify those responsible. The problem the headlines raise is not plain clothes as such, but the lack of identification during detention.
- Operational details may be kept secret. For the drone and the weapons, the authorities may have investigative reasons not to publish details. This explains silence for a while, but not indefinitely.
- Who was on the ground? Most reports come from Syri and Balkanweb, which broadcast live from the protest. This may mean they saw more or that they chose to stress these scenes. The data are not enough to say which.
What the data do not show
- Headlines report what outlets, witnesses and politicians say; they do not prove who the people without uniform were.
- "No evidence in the headlines" does not mean "no evidence". Evidence may have been reported only in the body of articles or not yet made public.
- The monitoring closes on 21 October at 14:00.
What to watch
- Are the masked people at the Socialist Party headquarters and the Interior Ministry identified, and do the police give an explanation?
- Is evidence published for the drone with explosives and the "armed persons"?
- What do the courts decide for the two people arrested over the warehouse and the pyrotechnics flat, and is a link to the protest proven?
- What do the AMP and Ombudsman investigations find about police without identification?
How it was measured
We searched for headlines with words such as "civilians", "plain clothes", "unidentified", "masked", "clubs", "paramilitaries" and "van with no logo" (in Albanian), and read them one by one. We kept only those about force by people without uniform or unidentified people, or about official responses to it. We removed other uses (for example "civil conflict") and headlines about masked protesters, which are a separate topic. Repeated headlines from the same outlet on the same day were counted once. For the security claims we searched headlines on weapons, drones, warehouses and bombs up to 21 October at 14:00. We do not publish the names of people arrested. Source: Artivista media monitoring.
