The intersection of organized crime, corruption and politics in Albania is impacting the country’s press. During a joint mission by a coalition of press freedom organizations to Tirana in June, CPJ Europe Correspondent Attila Mong spoke with journalists about challenges including threats, attacks, political interference, and legal harassment.
Klodiana Lala’s two baby daughters were asleep in her father’s home when someone sprayed the house with automatic gunfire in the early hours of August 30, damaging the walls and windows. No one was injured, but the News 24 TV reporter, who was away at the time, said the attack impacted her whole family. “We are still devastated and my daughters traumatized,” she told me in Tirana in June. “Our family is really simple, we have never had any trouble with anyone”.
Nearly a year later, no one has been arrested. Lala said the only motive she can think of for the attack is her reporting on apparent links between organized crime and politics, which this year earned her an international award.
“Journalists here are walking on a minefield, and the biggest risk is when they do not realize on whose toes they are treading while doing their investigations,” Besar Likmeta, an investigative reporter for the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), a regional network of non-governmental organizations, said when we met to discuss the attacks and threats against Albanian journalists.
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