Media Climate in Albania Worsening, Press Freedom Advocates Say

International media organisations at a press conference in Tirana on Friday. Photo Credits: BIRN

Seven media freedom organisations raised concerns at a press conference in Tirana on Friday that despite some progress, the situation for free and independent reporting is deteriorating in the country.

“Our assessment is that overall Albania continues to experience a deterioration in media freedom. While the legal framework remains generally adequate, no progress has been made in recent years in improving the environment for independent and watchdog journalism or media pluralism,” they said in a statement.

They pointed out that Albania has good laws on media freedom and the protection of journalists but it is not implementing them properly.

Friday’s press conference came after a two-day fact-finding mission to Albania by Article 19, the International Press Institute, the European Federation of Journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters without Borders, the European Broadcasting Union and the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom.

The seven organisations cited as progress the withdrawal of the government’s planned anti-defamation legislation and police investigations of attacks on journalists.

“Despite these encouraging steps, the overwhelming perception of media representatives the delegation met with was that the climate for free and independent reporting was worsening in Albania,” they said.

They told the press conference that they had met all the significant figures in the country to talk about media freedom – Prime Minister Edi Rama, members of parliament, police and prosecution officials, and representatives of the public broadcaster and various journalists.

The relationship between Prime Minister Rama and Albania’s media has long been fraught.

This year Rama ordered two journalists to undergo “re-education”, meaning that they couldn’t attend his press conferences or ask him any questions for a certain period.

In 2022, Albania fell 20 places in the press freedom index compiled by international watchdog Reporters Without Borders, from 83rd to 103rd place.

Reporters Without Borders said that journalists in Albania are targeted by organised crime groups and even by police violence and that the state is failing to protect them, while private media outlets are owned by businessmen who have links with politicians.

Source: balkaninsight.com