As Albania waits to find out whether the European Union will agree to open accession talks in May 2020, media freedom continues to decline. Two controversial “anti-defamation” laws were passed by Parliament in December that could post a chilling threat to media freedom, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression in the Western Balkan country.
The first in a series of 52 interviews with Albanian women in the public sphere #52GraShqiptare. Gresa Hasa is a radical feminist, political activist and freelance writer. She has studied Political Science at the University of Tirana and has been active politically and socially in the Albanian public sphere due to her engagement with the
Leader of the Lëvizja Vetëvendosje, Albin Kurti, stated that the second ‘Balkan mini-Schengen’ meeting was unexpected for him after he had talked with Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama few weeks ago. He added that the meeting “shouldn’t have been held” and “the haste” to hold it between the same three countries was “wrong and unexplainable”.
Seven hundred and thirty days ago, Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was brutally assassinated in a carefully planned attack that to date has not been solved. One of Malta’s most prominent figures, Daphne spent her life and career unearthing the rot that runs right to the heart of Maltese government. Her website, ‘Running Commentary’
This is a tongue-in-cheek take on the main news in Albania over the last week. Minister of Drug Trafficking Gets Off with a Suspended Sentence The former Minister of Drug Trafficking Saimir Tahiri managed to get away with charges that he was complicit in an international drug trafficking ring involving tonnes of cannabis being
President Ilir Meta submitted classified information to the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee that is impeaching him, regarding an alleged plan by some people to set fire to the Albanian parliament building on June 8, 2019. On the same day in June and shortly before an opposition protest, the president announced his decision to cancel the June
In a recent interview with the Voice of America, Chief of the Management Board of the International Monitoring Operation (ONM) Genoveva Ruiz Calavera declared the following: “The increasing attacks against the justice reform, vetting, and the ONM, international observers, and our EU assistance missions in this sense are very meaningful. These claims are without basis
Was I wrong about rallies? As a political consultant who worked around the world, I long down-played the importance of mass-demonstrations, viewing them more as flashes in the pan than enduring movements. But looking at a photo of 200,000 Czechs in the streets of Prague this morning, I’m questioning my old thinking. A little less
UPDATE: Socialist Party MP Blerina Gjylameti has implied that the Bild article criticising Edi Rama and his government, was sponsored by the opposition. She said in a statement this afternoon that the opposition “pays money to blacken Albania’s image in the world” and to negatively impact tourism and the economy, something the article published on
In its annual report on human rights, the US State Department criticized Albania for its record on corruption, election fraud, impunity of officials, media freedom, police abuse, respect of rights of women, children, LGBT+ and workers. The report stated that human rights issues included pervasive corruption in all branches of government. US State Department quoted