Albania

The Parliament elected on November 6 the new chair of the regulator on audiovisual media, Audiovisual Media Authority (AMA.) His name is Gentian Sala, holding a law degree, as well as a master’s degree in “European Studies.” He comes from a legal background, switching then to commercial business activities, working as a manager and co-owner […]

  The latest EU Progress Report on Albania for 2014 highlighted the slow progress made in certain legislative areas, while emphasizing the need to take steps for resolving the existing deadlock and addressing imminent processes, such as digital switchover. Major attention was paid to the implementation of the Law on Audiovisual Media, which has been […]

  The Union of Albanian Journalists organized a press conference to denounce the difficult economic and social situation in the Albanian media market. Aleksandër Çipa, chairman of the union, declared that the economic crisis in Albanian media has deepened and the informality in labor relations has worsened. He also provided data to support these statements. […]

The Parliament elected on October 9 two new members of the Audiovisual Media Authority (AMA.) The new members are Pirro Misha, head of Institute for Dialogue and Communication and well-known publicist, and Gledis Gjipali, head of the European Movement Albania. The new members were voted only by Members of Parliament from the ruling majority, as […]

  On September 18 the parliament approved the new law “On right to information.” The law was approved after years of discussion with the Ministry of Justice, public administration, and relevant parliamentary commissions. The initiative to change the existing law on access to information came from Soros Foundation and other civil society organizations. The law […]

  OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, condemned an attack on journalists reporting on a police raid in Gjirokastra’s Lazarat village in southern Albania on June 16. “Violence against journalists is unacceptable, safety is a basic pre-condition for their work,” Mijatović said. According to media reports, a vehicle carrying a journalist, a camera […]

  This month Freedom House released its global ranking of freedom of the press all over the world. Albania was ranked 98th out of 197 countries, qualified as partly free. This marked a slightly lower rank compared to last year, when it was ranked as 96th. Out of Balkan countries, it shared the same position […]

  The Members of Parliament debated on May 22 on whether to pronounce the vacancy of the chair of Audiovisual Media Authority, a topic that has resulted in a deadlock between the two political wings in the last months. The opposition maintained that the ruling majority’s wish to publish such a vacancy pointed to the […]

  On April 28, the Parliamentary Commission of Media finally made a decision on the procedures for electing the new members of the Steering Council of RTSH (KDRTSH.) The Commission agreed for both the opposition and ruling majority MPs to each shortlist 20 candidates out of the 57 applicants. Then, each side will proceed to […]

On April 12 the police was involved in an incident with a reporter of daily Panorama, during a protest related to the death of an Albanian prisoner in a Greek camp. As the police claimed that the protesters deviated from their plan, the police tried to stop them, clashing with the protesters. Journalist Armand Bajrami […]