Albanian Journalists 'Feel Unprotected' After PM's Angry Outbursts

Media experts say Albanian journalists are not getting the support they need from their news organisations after another incident in which Prime Minister Edi Rama lashed out verbally and barred a reporter from his press conferences.

Journalists in Albania protest against bans by Prime Minister Edi Rama. Photo: BIRN

Media experts say Albanian journalists are struggling to deal with the political and professional pressures they are under after Prime Minister Edi Rama lashed out at two reporters in recent months, refusing to answer their questions because he said they were “unethical”.

Rama told the journalists that they should undergo “re-education” and temporarily barred them from his press conferences.

Erlis Cela, a professor at Beder University in Tirana, said that journalists are facing “double pressure” – from external sources such as politicians, and from internal sources such as media owners and managers who do not protect them from politicians’ insults and threats.

“Politics is the main source of direct pressure on journalists. We are witnesses to blackmail, insults and denigrating statements by various politicians towards journalists,” Cela told BIRN.

Cela argued that journalists come under pressure from within their news organisations because media owners want to maintain good relations with the government and prime minister.

“This ownership structure is the source of many of the problems that the media faces today. As long as the media is part of large business groups, whose owners profit by taking public tenders and using public money, benefiting from non-transparent relations with politics, journalists will continue to be under double pressure and unprotected,” he explained.

Ervin Goci, a professor of journalism at the University of Tirana, argued that “in this relationship between the government and the media, the journalist has no weight or power”.

Osman Stafa, a journalist based in Tirana, argued that it is not the prime minister’s job to define whether a question is ethical, serious or correct, but to answer the questions that are posed.

He said that Rama’s attitude “harms journalists and leads to self-censorship. That is more dangerous than censorship itself.”

He also argued that journalists do not have the support they need.

“Journalists are alone in this battle. The responsibility falls on us to set a standard in journalism. And in this situation, I continue to insist that the only way is for journalists to be empowered and independent. In this way, they are protected and can ask the questions they want,” he said.

On July 1, when journalist Kelvin Muka asked Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs Olta Xhacka about a strategic investment project that was won by her husband, Rama interrupted the press conference, saying that the question was not an ethic alone and barred the journalist from press conferences until October.

“You will go to re-education [camp]…You are not welcome at any press conference,” Rama said.

The Global Network for Independent Journalists, IPI, expressed concern about the ban.

“IPI expresses full solidarity with our members and all journalists who protested yesterday over the move by PM Rama to ban A2CNNNews journalist Klevin Muka from press conferences,” IPI said in a statement on Tuesday.

In March, Rama told another journalist, Ambrozia Meta, that she would be barred from press conferences for 60 days because she needed “re-education” after she asked about a ruling Socialist Party MP who had been arrested.

“Today you lose the right to my answers for the next 60 days. You will go to re-education,” Rama said.

This year Albania fell 20 places in press freedom index compiled by watchdog Reporters Without Borders, from 83 to 103.

Reporters Without Borders said that journalists are being targeted by organised crime groups and even by police violence, and the state is failing to protect them, while private media outlets are owned by businessmen who have links with politicians.