Amnesty International raises alarm: Journalists in Albania are threatened by politics and organized crime

Amnesty International has published its 600-page report for 2024-2025.

The non-governmental organization with the mission of protecting human rights, justice and truth has published data analysis in 150 countries, including Albania.

Freedom of the media and the journalistic profession is another worrying topic in Albania analyzed by Amnesty International.

"Journalists in Albania are threatened by both politics and organized crime," the report states.

As the 2024 World Press Freedom Index has signaled, "The media in Albania is threatened by economic and political interests and lacks a legal framework that regulates this relationship."

Also, sexual violence and gender-based violence is one of the issues that this report places at the center of its analysis of Albanian society.

In the first half of 2024, statistics show 686 women were raped in Albania, 30% more than a year earlier, in 2023.

"There is a lack of institutional assistance to victims of this violence, a fact that often forces them to return to their abusers," the report states.

Amnesty recalls the fact that the ESC, the European Solidarity Community, signaled several months ago that the procedure for free legal assistance to victims should be reviewed to give more access to victims of domestic violence.

Amnesty International brings to attention the Italy-Albania pact, on the establishment of migrant camps in Albania and the fact of an arbitrary detention regime for asylum seekers, violating human rights and freedoms.

The situation of prisoners in Albanian prisons, where there is overcrowding and a lack of adequate health services, is a cause for concern.

For prisoners with mental health problems, the Lezha hospital lacks appropriate infrastructure and specialized personnel.

Amnesty International experts have documented discriminatory state behavior towards ethnic minority people who have difficulty registering in the civil registry or obtaining an identity card that can provide them with public services.

As for the LGBT community, Amnesty International supports the request of the UN independent expert who asks the Albanian government for laws and policies that recognize the reality of people from this community and the stigma and discrimination they face in social, health, employment and everyday life./ syri.tv