TIRANA, Oct 1 /ATA/ Democratic Party chairman Sali Berisha raised concerns over media freedom and pluralism in Albania in an address to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Berisha claimed that more than 90% of Albania’s media is controlled by the government or interests linked to it, while the remaining outlets face pressure and attacks.
“The most serious international reports show that in Albania, more than 90% of the media, including news coverage, debates and editorials, is controlled by the prime minister, his narco-government and the businesses of his oligarchs. In a context where 90% of the media is controlled by the government’s political and economic interests, ‘banal evil’ ceases to be a series of random mistakes and becomes an operating system, and this is precisely the case in Albania,” he said.
Berisha argued that control over language and information erodes independent thought and reduces political pluralism to a sham.
“Language becomes a kind of ‘prison without walls’, where words are used to suppress independent thought before it can even emerge. The corruption of language is by far the most powerful and invisible instrument of ‘banal evil’. It marks the destruction of the fundamental contract between the individual, society and truth. When language is corrupted, thought is corrupted: freedom becomes fictitious, political pluralism is replaced by bureaucratic pluralism, and this is the reality in Albania today — the first and only narco-state in Europe,” Berisha said.
Berisha called for a firm international response and sanctions against the Albanian government, arguing that such measures are essential to safeguarding media freedom and independence and restoring what he described as genuine democratic pluralism in Albania.
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