One of the most reliable organizations for the state of media freedom, "Reporters Without Borders" has published a report on Albania where we are ranked 83rd, losing three places from last year. To create a comparative idea with the countries of the region, Albania is much worse than Macedonia (45th) or Montenegro (41st), but ranks much better than Serbia (104th).
But the main problem of this backlog in media freedom, more than the loss of three countries, lies in the symptoms that "Reporters Sans Frontieres" notices in this weakening of the Albanian public's right to be informed. They confirm the criticisms often articulated by local actors, mainly about the large television stations that are in the hands of oligarchs, four or five families, who use them according to their own interests. Even worse than that, these TV owners are connected to politics and receive favors from it in sectors such as the granting of building permits.
“The most influential private media in Albania are owned by a small number of companies with connections to the political world, especially in highly regulated sectors such as construction,” the report states at the top. While in the economic section it is specified: “A significant part of the Albanian media market is concentrated in the hands of four or five companies. Public funding constitutes a large part of media revenues, but its non-transparent and discriminatory distribution raises suspicions of influence peddling.”
So, the picture is clear: the political power that holds the permits, licenses or public funds indirectly commands the owners who limit the freedom of the journalists who work for them. Consequently, the findings of "Reporters Without Borders" note that journalists are under political pressure, that those who criticize are subjected to pressures aimed at discrediting them, and consequently self-censorship is considered a widespread phenomenon.
If we add to this alarming situation the findings that the closure of Tik Tok before the elections is considered in the report as a restriction of freedoms or the fact that the government is not transparent in providing information, the picture becomes more complete. But the main problem that is not highlighted for any of the other countries in the region is in our case the financial capture of the owners by the government, which then determines the fact that these media oligarchs then also limit the freedom of their journalist employees.
Although Albania has lost three places in the ranking and although very worrying phenomena are observed in the argumentation of this situation, Prime Minister Rama has turned a blind eye to these facts, publishing a completely different position on his social networks.
He, who mocked the Reporters' report for 2022 (posts below), has now used a SIGMA-OECD report, which states that the Media and Information Agency (MIA) has received praise, to say that he feels muddied and attacked from within and without, by reports that are independent not only of the government but also of the facts./ Lapsi.al
