Met with hard competition to win over audiences, an Albanian TV channel is carrying a literary technique towards delivering viewers the “naked” truth — by engaging almost-topless newsreaders. Wearing open jackets and nothing underneath, the young women reading the headlines on Zjarr TV are an unusual sight in the conventional Balkan nation, where they first appeared on television and internet screens last year.
“In Albania, where the news is manipulated by political powers, the audience needed a medium that would present the information like it is — naked,” Ismet Drishti owner of Zjarr Tv told AFP. “We don’t sell sex, we reproduce the news as it is. It’s both symbolic and good publicity,” said Drishti, who plans to launch French and English language bulletins with “basic information” following the same model.
For 24-year-old presenter Greta Hoxhaj, working in a state of the near-nude has proved to be a shortcut to recognition. “I worked hard for five years in local television where I remained unnoticed,” a joyful and relaxed Hoxhaj told AFP in the studio, while her face was made up for the cameras. “I regret nothing — in the space of three months I became a star.” Every nighttime at 7:30 pm, Hoxhaj reads the report in a revealing and preferably pink jacket, but she was quick to point out that she wraps like other women of her age in day-to-day l
The presenter, who studies law and psychology said her stripped-down look “is only for television, for information”.
Her newfound fame has landed her a job offer in Sydney as a presenter for a soon-to-launched Australian TV channel — paying 3,000 euros ($4,590) a week, and demanding her to deliver the news topless.
“I have not decided yet, I’m still in discussions,” said Hoxhaj.
“It’s pathetic to have accepted such a thing just to be on screen,” wrote one online critic, while another spoke the move was “outrageous” and “disgustingly sexist”. But Hoxhaj told them she was not impacted by such responses: “I dared to do what I do and now I’m a star.”
Leonard Olli, a journalist and PR specialist in the capital Tirana said “There is a diversity of choice and everyone is free to change the channel”.
“Nudity cannot resolve the crisis in the media, which will serve anything to the public to survive,” Aleksander Cipa, President of the Union of Albanian Journalists said.
