Albania has significantly less journalists than its European neighbours with just 0.3% of the total population employed within the media sector.
According to Eurostat, in 2019, 0.5% of the EU population was employed in journalism-related economic activities. The country with the highest number of journalists is Germany with 1.3%, Norway with 0.8%, and Finalen with 0.7%.
Countries with fewer journalists include Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. Interestingly, countries with more journalists tend to have higher media freedom scores, and those with fewer journalists rank lower.
According to INSTAT, 1818 people are employed in the publications and program products sector in 2018. This equates to just 0.3%.
Aleksander Cipa, Head of the Union of Albanian Journalists said there are around 2700 in total but only around 1750 of these have worked in media continuously for more than three years and without interruption.
INSTAT says that the average salary for media workers in the country is around EUR 340.
According to Cipa, the level of informality in the industry is high as up to 35% do not declare the real salary. This prevails at all levels, including senior management.
