Freedom House: Albania still partially free

TIRANA, Jan. 15 – Media in most Balkan countries remains partly free, according to the latest Freedom in the World 2011 report published by US-based watchdog Freedom House.
Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey are all in the group with partly-free media, characterized by some restrictions on political rights and civil liberties, often in context of corruption, weak rule of law, ethnic strife or civil war. Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Cyprus, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania are classified as countries with free media, where there is a broad scope for open political competition, a climate of respect for civil liberties and independent media.
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.
Published annually since 1972, Freedom in the World examines the ability of individuals to exercise their political and civil rights in 194 countries and 14 territories around the world. The latest edition analyzes developments that occurred in 2010 and assigns each country a freedom status؆ree, Partly Free, or Not Freeآased on a scoring of performance on key democracy indicators.