Journalist Osman Stafa, a guest on News 24’s lunchtime program, described the threat he faced a few days ago after reporting that a company was extracting aggregate from the Shkumbin River for road construction, causing pollution.
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Stafa said he had traveled to Hotolisht, in Librazhd, to investigate residents’ reports on the ground and document them on video. According to him, after he finished filming and set off toward Elbasan, a vehicle with two people inside began following him.
He said he had received reports about what he described as the destruction of the Shkumbin River, where aggregate is being extracted for road construction. The journalist recalled that the same road had also been built in 2001 by a company from the Republic of North Macedonia, without disturbing the mountains and hills, and questioned why this was happening now.
According to Stafa, the aggregate is being extracted improperly because the company does not want to spend money and has chosen the easiest solution. He said residents needed to understand the scale of the disaster, adding that awareness among them had begun to grow and that citizens had also sent him videos.
The journalist stated that the mountain had subsided about 100 meters from the road. After filming in Hotolisht, he continued toward Elbasan, following the route of the road and the areas where companies dump aggregate in order to verify the situation. According to him, all the material being extracted ends up in the Shkumbin River.
Near the Ballkani Hotel, Stafa said he saw a truck collecting aggregate and attempted to record the moment when the excavator was extracting it. According to him, this footage was also submitted as part of the criminal complaint.
Just a few seconds later, a car drove toward him. The journalist said the vehicle had previously been parked about 150–200 meters away, in a position from which those inside could observe his actions.
After seeing what he was doing and noticing the television station’s logo, the people in the vehicle began following him. The car continued to follow him on the road to Elbasan, flashing its lights and driving excessively close to him.
Stafa said he slowed down to give them an opportunity to overtake, but the vehicle passed him and positioned itself in front of his car. He emphasized that the incident had also been witnessed by others and read out their messages during the interview.
When the other car stopped, the journalist also stopped and then reversed. He said he saw two people and that the pursuit continued until he managed to lose the vehicle. Immediately afterward, Stafa notified the State Police that he was being followed by a car.
At the police station, he learned who the vehicle belonged to. Police took two people in for questioning, but the journalist insisted that they were not the people he had seen during the pursuit, emphasizing that the burly man he had noticed was not among them.
According to Stafa, the company had brought the two people taken in for questioning into the case, although, as he stated, they were not the perpetrators of this “mafia-style act.” Police, on the other hand, had told him that they had been found in the car. The journalist reiterated that the people who appeared at the Elbasan Police station were not those who had followed him.
Stafa said he was not afraid and would continue pursuing the case because he believed in the cause and had chosen the path of fighting injustice.
