Nikollë Lesi

Nikollë Lesi is the owner and editor of the newspaper Koha Jonë and a former Member of the Albanian Parliament.
Koha Jonë was Albania's first private newspaper, and was formed by Nikollë Lesi. They privatized the newspaper of the Committee of the Party of Labour of Lezha in 1992.
In May 2004 he was fined 2 million lekë (10,000 pounds sterling) for the defamation of the Prime Minister Fatos Nano and two of his employees, after an article accused them of corruption. As leader of the Christian Democratic Party he complained of undue pressure on his party's candidates in the 2005 election campaign, claiming: "They are even firing our candidates from their jobs prior to the election." In May 2006 he proposed the so-called 'Lesi amendment' to exclude the owners of television companies from public tenders. The law was passed, however it was returned to the Assembly by the President in May 2007 on the grounds that it conflicted with Article 7 of the Albanian constitution. After losing the leadership of the Christian Democratic Party of Albania to Nard Ndoka he left that party and announced, in November 2007, that he was setting up a new Party: the Albanian Christian Democratic Movement.