[Prishtina-E] [Albanians-Today] Press-Release: FIVE ALBANIAN-AMERICAN GROUPS PROTEST AGAINST CNN'S BRANDING OF ALBANIANS "KINGPINS OF U.S. CRIME"

[Mentor Cana]

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Note: the actual letter of protest addressed to CNN is at the end of this 
press-release)
Contact: Besnik Pula at: besnik at alb-net.com

AUGUST 23, 2004

FIVE ALBANIAN-AMERICAN GROUPS PROTEST AGAINST CNN'S BRANDING OF ALBANIANS
"KINGPINS OF U.S. CRIME"

Five Albanian-American groups today sent a joint letter to the international
news network CNN protesting their recent depiction of Albanians as "kingpins
of U.S. crime" in a news piece dealing with organized crime in the United
States.

The CNN article, entitled "FBI: Albanian mobsters 'new Mafia'", was
published on CNN's international website on August 19, 2004. It sparked
immediate reaction among Albanian-Americans, a group of whom decided that
they would not stand idly while their entire community was being defamed by
poor piece of journalism published by a powerful news outlet.

In their letter to CNN, the Albanian-American groups called the article
"entirely one-sided, inaccurate, and outright derogatory," referring to its
unsupported and carelessly worded assertions and completely unbalanced
representation of the Albanian-American community.

Furthermore, the letter stated that one of the assertions in the article
"effectively qualifies all Albanian-Americans and recent Albanian immigrants
to the United States as criminals," while the rest of the article
unjustifiably referred to Albanians as possible "kingpins of U.S. crime"
without providing any evidence in support of such a seriously disparaging
charge.

What was especially shocking was the suggestion that the Albanian-American
community may harbor "militant Muslims" who may potentially be involved in
the support of terrorism. No evidence was provided to substantiate the
highly tendentious claim. The letter to CNN retorted: "As a community that
has been directly affected by the horrific events of September 11, 2001,
with respectable and hard-working members of our community having perished
in the terrorist attack against the World Trade Center, with
Albanian-Americans proudly serving in the New York Police and Fire
Departments, with thousands of us lending our assistance and support to
victims, and as a proud, hard-working component of the civic fabric of New
York City, we are appalled by any insinuation that we, as a community,
provide any kind of support to any type of terrorist activity."

The letter was signed by the Alliance of Albanian-American Professionals
(AAAP), the National Albanian-American Council (NAAC), the Albanian-American
Women's Organization (AAWO), the Albanian-American Student Organization
(AASO), and the Kosova Action Network (KAN). This was the first time that
such a broad coalition stepped up in a joint initiative to counter negative
media representations of the Albanian-American community.

---------------------------

To: Terry Frieden, Justice Producer, CNN

August 21, 2004

Dear Mr. Frieden:

We are appalled and deeply disturbed by the entirely one-sided, inaccurate,
and outright derogatory representation of the Albanian-American community in
CNN's news item of August 19, 2004, "FBI: Albanian mobsters 'new Mafia'"
[http://edition.cnn.com/2004/LAW/08/18/albanians.mob/index.html]. The news
item contains at least one highly misleading statement, several
unsubstantiated assertions, and paints a completely biased picture of the
Albanian-American community. The article fully betrays the standards of
fairness, balance, and accuracy, which we are accustomed to receiving from a
distinguished news outlet like CNN.

More specifically, in a statement that effectively qualifies all
Albanian-Americans and recent Albanian immigrants to the United States as
criminals, the article at its heading states: "Thousands of Albanians and
others who fled the Balkans for the United States in recent years have
emerged as a serious organized crime problem [...]." This formulation is
clearly not only inaccurate, but highly offensive to any decent,
law-abiding, and hardworking member of the Albanian-American community. Its
damaging potential is greatly exacerbated by the fact that, as a relatively
new and small immigrant community in the United States, most members of the
American public know little about our history, culture, and our roles as
members of mainstream American society. Statements like the one cited above,
not only false from a factual point of view, also threaten to stigmatize our
entire community, especially when distributed worldwide by a powerful media
organization like CNN.

Second, the article provides no real evidence why, out of the many recent
immigrant groups from the Balkans and around the world, Albanians have been
particularly singled out, and our ethnic and cultural identity explicitly
associated with the activity of the criminal organizations referred to in
the article. For instance, members of other organized crimes groups are
referred to by an acronym ("La Cosa Nostra") and not as "Italians" or "the
Italian families" or "the Italian mafia." Furthermore, the article bases its
bombastic claim that Albanians are becoming "kingpins of U.S. crime" simply
on the statements of an FBI official, without providing any concrete
examples of investigations or cases when alleged individual members of
Albanian organized crime groups have been arrested, indicted or convicted of
a crime. Moreover, the writer has made no attempt at soliciting a statement
from any prominent member or organization of the Albanian-American
community, to provide balance in the portrayal of Albanian-Americans. As
members of that community, we refuse to have our ethnic and cultural
identity collectively associated with the actions of what is most likely a
small and insignificant minority of our community, and your article paints a
simple black and white picture.

Finally, the article suggests a highly dubious potential connection between
"the militant Muslims emerging in the organized crime world" - apparently
referring once again to Albanian-Americans - and terrorism. Suggesting that
there are militant Muslims in our community - once again without citing any
evidence - is especially shocking and repulsive. As a community that has
been directly affected by the horrific events of September 11, 2001, with
respectable and hard-working members of our community having perished in the
terrorist attack against the World Trade Center, with Albanian-Americans
proudly serving in the New York Police and Fire Departments, with thousands
of us lending our assistance and support to victims, and as a proud,
hardworking component of the civic fabric of New York City, we are appalled
by any insinuation that we, as a community, provide any kind of support to
any type of terrorist activity. In fact, as Albanian-Americans, we are proud
of the fact that we share in the heritages of both Christianity and Islam,
and that we embody a historical tradition that has for centuries practiced
tolerance and respect of all religious denominations. Hence, any suggestion
of militant Islam, or of support to terrorism, in our community, especially
when unsubstantiated, is completely unacceptable.

Many of us are long-time consumers of CNN news products and are particularly
disappointed to find such inaccurate, unbalanced, and disparaging news items
authored and distributed by your organization. Our five organizations
represent some of the leading and most active organized groups of the
Albanian-American community, which numbers in the hundreds of thousands. We
are sending you this joint letter to demonstrate that we speak with one
voice in the defense of our community's dignity, and that we will not stand
for any type of defamation against our community.

We therefore request that you, either (1) rescind the article in its current
content and remove it from your website, or (2) correct the article by
substantiating the claims contained in it and providing a fairer and more
balanced portrayal of the Albanian-American community. Furthermore, we
expect to see CNN exhibit greater care in providing proper balance in future
articles dealing with our community.

Thank you for your attention to this matter, and we look forward to your
response.

Respectfully,

Alliance of Albanian-American Professionals
c/o Besnik Pula
2431 Stone Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Tel: (734) 763-7076
E-mail: besnik at alb-net.com

National Albanian-American Council
2021 L Street, NW
Suite 402
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: (202) 466-6900
E-mail: naac at naac.org

Albanian-American Women's Organization "Motrat Qiriazi"
481 8th Ave., Ste. 934
New York, NY 10001
Tel: (212) 244-8440
E-mail: shqipemalushi at aol.com

Albanian-American Student Organization
Box 18 Student Center
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI 48202
E-mail: aasocouncil at yahoo.com

Kosova Action Network
c/o Alice Mead
598 Shore Rd
Cape Elizabeth, ME 04107
Tel: (207) 767-7289
E-mail: kan-board at alb-net.com

Contact person: Mr. Besnik Pula, Alliance of Albanian-American Professionals
Tel: (734) 763-7076, E-mail: besnik at alb-net.com

Cc:	Ted Turner, Founder, CNN News Group
 	Jim Walton, President, CNN News Group
 	Burt Reinhardt, Vice Chair, CNN News Group
 	Princell Hair, Executive Vice President, General Manager, CNN News
Group
 	Charles Hoff, National Bureau Chief, CNN News Group
 	Susan Bunda, Senior Vice President
 	Rena Golden, Senior Vice President, CNN International
 	Eason Jordan, Executive Vice President, Chief News Executive
 	Rick Davis, Executive Vice President
 	Sid Bedingfield, Executive Vice President
 	David Bohrman, Vice President, Washington Bureau Chief
 	Karen Curry, Vice President, New York Bureau Chief
 	Paul Varian, Senior National News Editor
 	Kelli Arena, Justice Department Correspondent
 	Jeanne Meserve, Homeland Security Correspondent

Cc:	Senator Charles Schumer (NY)
 	Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY)
 	Senator Carl Levine (MI)
 	Senator Debbie Stabenow (MI)
 	Rep. Eliot Engel (NY-17th), Albanian Affairs Caucus
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