Despite some positive developments in the Albania media system since the fall of the Communist regime, such as the creation of a pluralistic media scene, the increase of the number of media outlets, the diversification of formats and the development of digital media, the reduction of physical attacks against journalists and the improvement of the legal framework, censorship and self-censorship are
still widely present in the Albanian media environment. They come from political and economic pressures, lack of financial viability for media outlets, lack of professionalism, ethics and of respect for journalists’ rights. Links between politics, business and media undermine journalistic excellence and quality of reporting in the Albanian media and generate censorship and self-censorship among journalists. One of the main reason of this concerns media ownership structures and patterns: many businessmen in Albania have become media owners, thus their media outlets are kept alive by their business earnings, while maintaining close relationships with politicians. Media professionals in Albania act under the strong influence of factors such as pressure from public institutions, pressure through state-sponsored advertising, pressure from big advertisers, but also pressure from owners’ economic interests, owners’ political links. As a result of all these pressures, self-censorship is a widespread phenomenon in the Albanian media. More than 70% of the media professionals involved in a study believe that journalists in Albania avoid to cover and report of certain stories and issues. Also, half around of the respondents admitted that they avoided certain news “often” or even “very often”. The issues more frequently avoided concern politics, organized crime and economy.
