TIRANA, April 21 – An annual Human Rights Practices report published by the US Department of State on Friday mentioned “pervasive corruption in all branches of government and limitations on expression and the press” as Albania’s most pressing human rights infringements during 2017.
More specifically, the report highlighted the self-censorship and intimidation of journalists driven by financial and political interests, as well as the negative impact that widespread allegations of vote buying and pressure on voters had on last year’s electoral process.
Concerning corruption, the report mentioned that between January and August 99 people were convicted for corruption and through August 2017, 17,752 complaints had been submitted to the portal stopkorruption.al, 8 percent of which had information on alleged corruption cases.
“In October prosecutors announced an investigation of a former interior minister for ties to organized crime and abuse of office,” it was stated.
Lack of punishment also remains a serious problem in the annual Human Rights report.
“Prosecution, and especially conviction, of officials who committed abuses was sporadic and inconsistent. Officials, politicians, judges, and those with powerful business interests often were able to avoid prosecution,” the report read.
Although the report notes some significant progress was made in pursuing low-level public corruption cases, “prosecution of higher-level crimes remained elusive due to investigators’ fear of retribution, a general lack of resources, and corruption within the judiciary itself.”
“The Ministry of Justice generally did not vigorously pursue disciplinary measures against judges. When it did so, the High Council of Justice (HCJ) was reluctant to enact those measures,” followed in the report.
The government is said to have effective control over police, the Guard of the Republic and armed forces.
“Personal associations, political or criminal connections, poor infrastructure, lack of equipment, or inadequate supervision often influenced law enforcement. Poor leadership and a lack of diversity in the workforce contributed to continued corruption and unprofessional behavior,” the report noted about Albanian police.
However, the report also noted authorities have made efforts to address these issues by renovating facilities, upgrading vehicles and highlighting anti-corruption measures, as well as increasing use of camera evidence to document and prosecute police misconduct.
The government, business and criminal groups finally also sought to influence the media in inappropriate ways according to the human rights practices report.
“Independent media were active and expressed a wide variety of viewpoints, although there were some efforts to exert direct and indirect political and economic pressure on the media, including threats and violence against journalists who tried to investigate crime and corruption stories,” the report noted.
Finally, political pressure, corruption and lack of funding constrained independent print media and, referring to an annual Media Sustainability Index, the country’s overall media environment deteriorated in several areas.
