Self-Censorship in Albania's Media Worries MEPs

The European Parliament has expressed concern about a culture of self-censorship among journalists in Albania in its draft resolution on the country's progress in 2015.

The draft motion, authored by the Rapporteur for Albania, Knut Fleckenstein, expresses concern "about widespread self-censorship among journalists" and calls for "strengthening their professional and ethical standards."

The concerns expressed by the MEPs follow a study published by BIRN Albania in October 2015 on the roots and causes of self-censorship among local journalists.

The report offered a overview of the roots and causes of self-censorship in the Albanian media as well as the forms in which it appears, plus recommendations on ways to combat it.

In a proposed draft amendment to the resolution, two MEPs, Marietje Schaake and Ilhan Kyuchyuk, from the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, also condemned a threat of defamation against BIRN Albania from local officials.

This followed the publication of a BIRN investigation into the criminal backgrounds of mayoral candidates running in the local elections.

The European Parliament "deplores that the Balkan Investigative Regional Network, an independent and investigative media outlet, has been threatened with a defamation case, following its investigations into the criminal past of a mayoral candidate during the local elections in 2015," the amendment proposed by Schaake and Kyuchyuk said.  

The BIRN investigation in fact revealed evidence that three mayoral candidates running in the local elections had criminal backgrounds.

It showed that two candidates running for the Socialist-led ruling coalition, Artur Bushi and Elvis Rroshi, standing for the posts of mayor of Kruja and...