The intermingling of powerful business, political, and media interests inhibits the development of independent media outlets, report says.
TIRANA, May 4 – The latest Freedom House report ranks Albania among partly free countries, a category the country has held for years.
Albania is ranked in the 98th place, two worse than a year ago, according to Freedom in the World 2013, Freedom House’s annual report on the state of global freedom.
“Corruption is pervasive, and the European Union has repeatedly called for rigorous implementation of anti graft measures,” says the report. Albania was ranked 113 out of 176 countries surveyed in Transparency International’s 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index.
The intermingling of powerful business, political, and media interests inhibits the development of independent media outlets; most are seen as biased toward either the Socialists or the Democrats, the report says.
It adds reporters have little job security and remain subject to lawsuits, intimidation, and in some cases physical attacks by those facing media scrutiny.
“The constitution provides for an independent judiciary, but the underfunded courts are subject to political pressure. The replacement of President Bamir Topi with a (former Prime Minsiter Sali) Berisha ally in June 2012 eased a lengthy standoff between the parliamentary majority and the presidency over senior judicial appointments, but it also increased the threat of political influence over the courts. Judicial immunity has obstructed investigations of corruption among the country’s poorly paid judges, who also face threats of violence,” the report noted.
Freedom House explains that a partly free country is one in which there is limited respect for political rights and civil liberties. Partly Free states frequently suffer from an environment of corruption, weak rule of law, ethnic and religious strife, and a political landscape in which a single party enjoys dominance despite a certain degree of pluralism.
The Freedom in the World survey provides an annual evaluation of the progress and decline of freedom in 195 countries and 14 related and disputed territories. The survey, which includes both analytical reports and numerical ratings, measures freedom according to two broad categories: political rights and civil liberties. Each country is assigned a numerical rating from 1 to 7 for both political rights and civil liberties, with 1 representing the most free and 7 the least free.
The ratings are determined by the total number of points (up to 100) each country receives on 10 political rights questions and 15 civil liberties questions; countries receive 0 to 4 points on each question, with 0 representing the smallest degree and 4 the greatest degree of freedom.
