Article 19, a British human rights organization, has ranked Albania 74th out of 162 countries on freedom of expression.
In its Global Expression Report for 2020, which measures the “state of freedom of expression in the world,” Article 19 gave Albania a score of 61/100, evaluated across 25 indicators.
Its score placed Albania in the threshold between the “less restricted” and “restricted” categories. In the region, only Serbia scored worse, ranking 91st.
The Report looked at both the freedom enjoyed by journalists and civil society, but also ordinary citizens and their ability to express themselves freely, participate in protests, and hold government officials to account.
More specifically, it analyzed how COVID-19 was used as an excuse by world leaders to impose restrictions on people’s freedom of expression.
The report noted that Albania was part of the 1/3 of world countries that used the pandemic to pass emergency laws with no time limits.
It also mentioned the murder of media owner Kastriot Reçi and the government’s takeover of 2 independent channels as motivation for its score.
Albania scored highly on several negative indicators, including official disinformation campaigns, abusive enforcement, receiving a score of 3/3 on restrictions of media freedom.
Just earlier this week, two journalists reported they were assaulted by the police as they tried to film an operation in Tirana.
