Prime Ministers of Albania

The AMA recommended sanctions against several outlets, but the Commissioner decided to fine only RTSH for breaking the 'electoral silence' on the eve of the vote.

Experts were incredulous, while one AMA board member, Sami Neza, said he was "astonished".

"We have proposed more administrative sanctions, but they have not been taken into account," Neza said.

The video was a crude example of a 'deep fake', a video that portrays someone saying something they didn't. And it was not the only political attack ad run by Untold Stories of Albania and targeting Basha and other opposition leaders before the April 25 vote that was won by the ruling Socialist of Prime Minister Edi Rama.

"With this designation, I am reaffirming the need for accountability and transparency in Albania's democratic institutions, government processes, and the actions of Albanian public officials," Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote in the press release.

Albania's parliament on Monday announced vacancies for four positions on the board of the country's Audio-visual Media Authority, AMA, without waiting for the new parliament elected in the April 25 elections to give its view, prompting concerns about the creation of a one-sided board supportive of Edi Rama's ruling Socialists.

After the news that the US has barred former Democratic Party leader and Albanian President and PM Sali Berisha, experts told BIRN that his opposition centre-right party might benefit from this decision in the long run.

Former Albanian prime minister Sali Berisha. Photo: LSA

Berisha is the fourth Albanian to be added to the list of people unwelcome in the US after former General Prosecutor Adriatik Llalla, former Socialist Party mayor Vangjush Dako and the current Social Democratic Party head, Tom Doshi.

Albania's parliament on Friday voted to set up a commission to examine the possible ousting of the country's President, Ilir Meta.

It came after a.group of ruling Socialist deputies requested his dismissal, accusing him of interfering in the April 25 legislative elections in violation of the constitution.

After winning an unprecedented third mandate to govern Albania, Edi Rama's Socialist Party has turned its attention to its only rival who currently has a senior institutional position, President Ilir Meta.

Edi Rama wrote on Facebook on Tuesday that his party has won the parliamentary elections and called on his supporters and "whoever wants to join us celebrate the victory" to attend a celebration in the evening in Tirana's central square despite concerns about the spreading of the coronavirus.

Tensions rose in the run-up to the weekend's polls in Albania when a young man was shot in his knee inside the electoral office of the opposition Democratic Party in the central Albania town of Kavaja late on Monday.