Albanian Human Rights Violations

BenReilly · Nov 14, 2003

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/albania/albania0602-04.htm#P436_74572

Ilir told Human Rights Watch that the police had indeed been to his home, where they had found and threatened his mother. Then they had visited his shop and asked his partner about the "tape with footage from the rally." In fact, the partner fell victim to an unfortunate coincidence that had made things much worse for him: when the police entered the shop, its TV was tuned to the station for which Ilir worked and was already showing Ilir's rally footage. At first the police thought that the partner was playing back the tape, but they became infuriated when they realized that the footage was being broadcast nationally.31 Another journalist saw Ilir's partner emerge from the police station at about 2:30 p.m. that day; he had a bruised face and told the journalist that the police had beaten him up continuously at the shop, on the way to the police station, and inside the station.
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BenReilly · Nov 14, 2003

http://hrw.org/press/2002/06/albania0613.htm

Human Rights Watch researchers found that journalists facing defamation charges are routinely denied fair trials, often resulting in excessive and unsubstantiated financial sanctions against them. The report identifies numerous rights violations committed in six recent defamation cases.

"What is striking about these cases is the failure of the Albanian courts to follow the binding law of the European Convention on Human Rights," Andersen said. "This reveals a tendency among the judiciary not to take fundamental rights seriously."

The Human Rights Watch report also points to biased allocation of state advertising as a major problem for the press in Albania. Government advertising accounts for a disproportionately large share of total media advertising in Albania, and government officials abuse their financial leverage to put pressure on critical outlets. Human Rights Watch called for tighter regulation of advertising, transparent procedures, and independent monitoring to curb these abuses.
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bojendyk · Nov 14, 2003

This is a pretty interesting region of Europe. I get the impression that the rest of Europe acknowledges the awfulness of the situation there and quiety hopes that it will all just go away. Their Iron Curtain experiences were easily the worst in Europe and among the worst in the world. Ceaucescu looked like Gandhi next to Hoxha.

Ben, there is an excellent movie called Lamerica about some Italian con men who try to set up a fake business in Albania to take advantage of some government grants. It was filmed there.

Have you read Ismail Kadare?