TIRANA, April 14 – Albania climbed three steps to rank 82th among 180 countries in the 2015 World Press Freedom Index published by France-based Reporters Without Borders, lagging behind only Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia among EU aspirants.
Citing the European Commission, the report says Albanian needs better implementation of legislation guaranteeing freedom of expression.
“Despite the freedom of information laws adopted in 1999 and 2014, access to state-held information continues to be limited and the broadcast media regulatory authority, the AMA, is politicized,” says the report.
Albania achieved its best ranking in the Press freedom barometer in 2003 when it ranked 34th out of 158 countries.
Meanwhile, Freedom House says Albania remains a partly free country in its 2015 Freedom of the Press report.
“The media are vigorous and fairly diverse. However, outlets often display a strong political bias, and their reporting is influenced by the economic or political interests of their owners,” said the report.
Albania’s 2.8 million resident population is offered 26 national newspapers, 64 TV stations and some 40 radio stations, which suffer from lack of funding and professionalism.
