ZERI I POPULLIT NEWSPAPER OF THE ALBANIAN WORKERS' (COMMUNIST) PARTY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A006300440009-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 18, 2008
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: April 4, 1955
• Content Type: REPORT

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CENTRAL -INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
This material contains Informatlon affecting the National Defense of the United States within the meaning of the 19spionage Lws, Title
18, U.S.C. Secs. 793 and 794, the transmission or revelation of which in any manner to an unauthorized person Is prohibited by law.
SUBJECT Zeri i Popullit, Newspaper of
the Albanian Workers' (Communist)
Party.
DATE OF INFO.
PLACE ACQUIRED
DATE ACQUIRED
REPORT
DATE DISTR. 4 April 1955
NO. OF PAGES 9
REQUIREMENT NO. RD
REFERENCES
1. In late 1953, Zeri i Popullit, official newspaper of the Albanian Workers'
(Ccimunist) Party was transferred by order of the Central Committee from
the Agit-prop Directorate and placed directly under the Central Committee
of the Politburo, Agit-prop office, headed by Liri Beliehova. Salaries of
all writers on the newspaper were increased and "functionary" ration cards,
which until December 1953, were 1only given to the Editor-in-Chief and to
the Secretary of the Kolegjium, were also given to chiefs of various sections
of the paper. The Central ommittee also took the following action to in-
crease the prestige of the paper:
a. It issued a directive stating that every Oar anizata Baze should
carefully analyze any critique published in the Zen Po 11it
concerning a local work center, and the Organizata Bete of the
criticized work center must prepare a written reply to Zeri i
Popullit evaluating the critique and listing the corrective
measures taken. The written reply may be published by Zeri i
Popullit. Moreover, every Organizata Baze at the work center
STATE X_ I ARMY
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which has been criticized must examine its deficiencies to
prevent a repetition of the same mistakes.
b. It suggested that every Communist Party member must subscribe
to Zeri i Po ullit. Party members should read the Zeri i
Po ul ut carefully and organize reading sessions in areas where
there are either few subscribers or many illiterates.
c. It directed that the distribution of publications, especially
Zeri i Popullit, to the villages should become one of the
activities of the Youth Organization.
d. It instructed Radio Tirana to include in its early morning broad-
cast, the editorial and current news items from Zeri i Popullit
and other papers, so that people living in towns wire the paper
arrives late in the afternoon or early the next day will be in-
formed on current topics.
Neva Directives
2. Discussion of certain internal and foreign subjects by Zeri i Popullit
are planned in advance. On the 25th of each month, the Politburo issues
a now directive to the Editor-in-Chief2 /.:Ehe Editor-in-Chief, a member of
the Central Committee, attends Politburo meetings when government and Party
matters of not too sensitive a nature are being discuese]. The directive
consists of subjects which the Party leadership wants to call to the attention
of the people. The Politburo may have noticed that during the past month
quotas had not been net by a particular enterprise. The Politburo will ad-
vise the Editor-in-Chief to prepare an editorial appealing to the patriotism
of the workers to increase their efforts, and will also order that two or
three articles be written criticizing specific plants which are falling
behind in their work schedule.
3. Guidance for handling of international news usually cosies from Taos and
Pravda. Taos must release a news item before Zeri i Popullit or the other
publications will take any action. This sometimes results in a news lag and
an international news item will be days late in appearing in the Albanian
press. In past years, the Editor-in-Chief would specify that a certain
number of articles were to be written criticizing the Yugoslavs, Greeks and
Italians, but this is only done on rare occasions. The Foreign Revs Section
might be instructed to prepare several articles on a specific country or
event to prepare public opinion for some official action such as a note of
protest.
4. On the basis of the news directive submitted by the Politburo and suggestions
by the Editor-in-Chief for articles, each of the section heads of the Zeri
i Po llit prepares a monthly plan. On the 28th of the month there is a
meeting of the Kolegjium to discuss the project plane of the various sections
and to make any necessary changes. On the 29th of the month, the monthly
plan of each of the various sections is sent to the Politburo Secretary of
Agit-prop, Liri Belishova, for approval and change if necessary. The plan
is then returned to the editorial office at the beginning of the month. Any
modification made in the approved plan during the month by the editorial
staff must be called to Belishova's attention. Using the monthly plan as a
a guide, each of the sections must prepare a weekly plan which is also dis-
cussed at a meeting of the Kolegjium. This weekly plan is sent to Belishova
but she rarely makes any changes in it. A copy of the weekly plan is also
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sent to the Agit-prop Directorate for its information. Hence, approximately
80% of the daily content of Zeri i Popullit is covered by these plans.
IGole ium
5. The Kole iumm is made up of the Editor-in-Chief, the Secretary and the
section beads ?2 This body meets daily to determine the material that will
be published by Zeri i E2gHllit in its next edition. Theoretically, it is
collectively responsible to the mi Party for the operation of the paper, but
in practice, it is a consultative body and practically all of the decisions
are mdde by the Editor-in-Chief.
6. Directives from the Politburo provide the newspaper with items for publication.
In order to determine what people are thinking, Zeri i 2ullit has a section
called the Office of Letters from the People which rreceives-60 to 100
letters a day. The following illustrates the types of letters received:
a person may write complaining that he had made a suggestion concerning im-
provement of the work at his work center, but had received no reply from the
management; a person may write that the employees in a cooperative store
are showing favoritism by selling certain items only to their friends; and
a person might write that he has observed negligence in the care of equip-
ment and supplies. If a number of letters are received on a certain subject
(or work center, collective, etc.), this is considered of sufficient importance
to devote a two or three column article to it. If the problem is considered
very important, it is discussed in a two-to-three column article placed in
the upper left hand corner of the first page - the place reserved for important
news items. Five or six of the 60 to 100 letters received daily are published.
Some are published because they point up some real problems, others are pub-
lished so that individuals can see their name in print, thus encouraging
others to write. In addition, Zeri i Popullit pays about 150 leksfor each
letter selected for publication.
7. Since the obgect of the letters is to point out difficulties, every letter
criticizingiparticular factory, enterprise or farm, is sent by mail to the
particular enterprise without giving the name of the sender. The work center
is obliged to send a reply to Zeri i Popullit evaluating the criticism and
listing the steps that have been taken to correct the difficulty. Most of
these replies, are published in the column Ne gjurmet e shkrimeve ("Follow-up
on our writing").
8. Before using letters from the readers as the basis for an article, the com-
plaints are checked. This work is don% by regular correspondents of Zeri
i Popullit on the nark and rreth level33 and by volunteer correspondents
(peasants and laborers) located in each village and work center. The
volunteer correspondents, usually Party members or persons sympathetic to
the regime who can read and write, do not receive a regular salary, but are
given 50 to 150 leks for news items and 150-300 leks for articles. To
encourage these volunteer correspondents, Zeri i Popullit often gives them
a by-line and invites them to attend conferences.
9. To facilitate the work of the regular correspondents of Zeri i Popullit in
each gark and rreth, the Party issued instructions that directors of work
centers must cooperate with the correspondents. They must be given freedom
to visit the work center and they must be allowed to talk with workers with-
out management representatives being present. When they visit an installation
which is engaged in secret work, they must present their special identity
cards and a written permit signed by the Editor-in-Chief.
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10. Personnel in the Office of the Letters From the People Section prepare an
index card for each letter received and keep a record of its exploitation,
who answered it, and when it was answered. Letters that are not considered
of great iiortance, such as those dealing with sports, holiday regulations
or routine political matters, are answered by personnel in this section.
Litters that deal with more important problems are passed to the section
concerned. Newsmen who delay in answering a letter may be criticized or
reprimanded.
11. The Zerf i Popullit has adopted the Soviet policy (seen especially in Pravda)
tbat'n o paper must be made up of material provided by the Zeri-f-
Ppp staff and its regular correspondents and 40% by voluntari-Fo-rri-
snient sad others. Volunteer correspondents usually submit their articles
about two weeks in advance of the date of publication. The article is
checked by the editor and if considerable revision is required, it is sent
back to the writer. If the article requires only a slight revision, this
will be made by the staff, with the concurrence of the writer.
Circulation
12. In 1953, circulation was 60,000. Later, this number was reduced because of
a scarcity of paper which must be imported from abroad. The large circula-
tion vs due to the fact that Communist Party members were obliged to
buy it, and the other papers were so small and poor in content that Zeri
i Egellit was preferred.
Personnel
13. Zeri i Popullit has about 60 full-time employees and 10 part-time employees
at iti offices in Tirana. Below are the key personnel on the paper:
a. Fadil Pacrami, Editor-in-Chief.
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b. Fiqri Vogli, Secretary of the KolegJium.
c. Tabo Sejko, Editor of the Economic Section.
d. Setts Kotmilo, Editor of the Jeta e Partise (Party Life) Section.
e. Faik Labinoti, Editor of the Agricultural Section.
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f. Jager rialo, Editor of the Cultural section
g. Niko Ninbku, Chief of the Infor tigh deaden.
h. Agron Fraeberi, Sditor of the iyeip Nelda Section.
1. Kin Duehi, a Special Correspondent.
J. A1eke Cici, Special Correspondent.
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k. Aril Di.bnica, writer.
1. Adriatik Kanani, writer.
m. Llm*bi Papa, writer.
n. Ko1i Dbimarku, writer.
o. Vasil Prifti, writer.
p. Gurt Lubonja, writer.
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q. Ojulso Sbtino, writer.
r. Qako Dango, writer.
S. Vasil Pali, writer.
1. Comernct: In Communist terminology, a collegium is a group of per- 25X1
now o y aainistering an enterprise or institution; a board.
2. Coo mment : See attached sketch.
Caren uts :
3. Qsrk (region) and rretb (district) are adminstrative subdivisions of
Albania.
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~tD11eo 7Uri D@Usbaa
Pan Pomp"
bho Salco, ed. Staff [ot.ilo, d, hik Iabinotisd. Jager 11010, od.. won lrai .ri, d. S!k
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