TIRANA, June 5 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović last Friday said recent attacks and threats against journalists in Albania as unacceptable.
A journalist of an Albanian media group received last week a threat from a suspected Islamic militant wanted in the country on terrorism charges.
Aurora Koromani of the Gazeta Shqiptare newspaper was threatened via Facebook. She reported the threat to the police who deemed it as serious, and the police are now providing protection for Koromani.
Koromani has extensively covered a group of Albanians recruiting people to fight alongside the Islamic State group in Syria. Nine Albanian Muslims, including two preachers, are on trial on such charges.
Dozens of Albanian citizens are believed to be fighting in Syria, despite mainstream religious leaders’ calls for them to not join rebel groups.
In another incident on June 4, a car belonging to Enver Doci, a television journalist with News 24 TV, was set on fire and destroyed in the town of Burrel in northern Albania.
“These attacks are totally unacceptable and they constitute a direct threat to free media,” Mijatović said. “I welcome the fact that the authorities quickly have launched investigations of these incidents, and that the police are providing protection for Koromani. There must be no impunity for attacks or threats against journalists.”
