TIRANA, April 27 – Freedom of the press declined in Albania last year despite maintaining its partly free status, a U.S. based watchdog has concluded. Freedom House, released this week its annual report, in which Albania ranked 106th in the world with a score of 51 points losing eight positions from the previous year. Meanwhile, Kosovo, a country with a predominant Albanian population, was ranked 96th.
Both countries last year occupied 98th position in the press freedom rankings. In its latest report, it considers press in Albania as less free compared to other countries in the region such as Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Among Western Balkan countries Montenegro ranked the highest in 80th position, followed by Serbia in 87th and Bosnia in 104th. Macedonia had the lowest ranking in the press freedom report in 136th place. Macedonia, together with Turkey, fared the worst in Europe and were given a not free status in the report.
The country enjoying the highest level of press freedom in Europe was Norway, whereas Belgium, Finland, Netherlands and Sweden shared second spot. The report states that violence and the refugee crisis have dominated news coverage in Europe in 2015. While not in a dramatic way like the murder of Charlie Hebdo journalists in France, attacks against journalists in the Western Balkans have influenced the decline in press freedom. The watchdog estimates that press freedom in the world fell to the lowest point in 12 years, while political forces terrorist and criminal organizations try to control or silence the press in their attempts to gain more power. According to Freedom House, only 14 percent of the world’s population live in a society enjoying free press status.
