07 January 2021
07 January 2021
The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), as part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), is concerned about legal proceedings initiated by Belioza Çoku, the Chief of Cabinet of the Minister of Defence, against journalist Juljana Ristani, who published a story on undue interference with lists of nominees for educational bursaries in the context of a public competition held by the Ministry of Defence.
Prior to the article in question, Ristani had made public for the first time the ranking of the bursary applications. The leading candidate is expected to be awarded the scholarship. However, the leading applicant on this list was ultimately not successful, as the scholarship was awarded to another candidate. There have been no complaints from the Minister of Defence questioning the authenticity of the list published by Ristani. The article that forms the basis of the legal action includes allegations that Çoku called and threatened the family of the leading applicant on the list late at night after they complained to the authorities. Çoku demands damages from Ristani for publishing “inaccurate and misleading data”. In light of the fact that Ristani has clear evidence to prove her factual statements, we consider the public official’s legal threat against the journalists constitutes an attempt to intimidate her and hinder her work.
In addition to the case against Ristani, the MFRR recently documented abusive legal proceedings against BIRN and Artan Rama in Albania. The accumulation of such legal actions against journalists and media workers by powerful individuals, including policy-makers, shows that Albania has a media and legal landscape that undermines the functioning of a free press and constitutes a broader threat to press and media freedom that interferes with reporting on issues in the public interest.
We call on the pursuers to drop their abusive legal actions. The courts must not be abused to stifle critical journalism that strengthens the public’s right to know and enhances democratic accountability.
This statement is part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), an Europe-wide mechanism, which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries. This project provides legal and practical support, public advocacy and information to protect journalists and media workers. The MFRR is organised by an consortium led by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) with ARTICLE 19, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Free Press Unlimited (FPU), the Institute for Applied Informatics at the University of Leipzig (InfAI), International Press Institute (IPI) and CCI/Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT). The project is co-funded by the European Commission. www.mfrr.eu
Following a mission to Athens, eight international organisations call on the Government and Prime Minister to show political courage and urgently improve the climate for independent journalism and salvaging press freedom in Greece.
READ MOREECPMF and 79 civil society and journalists' associations are calling on European Parliament to ensure that journalists are completely protected from spyware in the European Media Freedom Act.
READ MOREBetween 2 and 5 October 2023, five international media freedom organisations will conduct an annual joint press freedom mission to Ankara, Diyarbakır and Istanbul.
READ MOREWe are highly concerned about the alleged surveillance of journalist Makarios Drousiotis, and the lack of prompt, adequate or thorough investigation of the matter.
READ MOREBetween 25 and 27 September 2023, eight international press freedom and freedom of expression organisations will conduct a joint advocacy and fact-finding mission to Athens.
READ MOREWe call on the European Parliament to strengthen the EMFA’s state advertising provisions and by doing so, ensure that media freedom can flourish in the European Union.
READ MOREAll content available on the ECPMF website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Menckestr. 27
04155 Leipzig / Germany
Tel: +49 (0) 172 367 499 0
Fax: +49 (0) 341 562 96 63
E-Mail: info@ecpmf.eu
www.ecpmf.eu
© Copyright 2022 – ECPMF
European Centre for Press and Media Freedom
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
_mcid | 1 year | This is a Mailchimp functionality cookie used to evaluate the UI/UX interaction with its platform |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
_ga | 2 years | The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors. |
_gat_gtag_UA_84831681_1 | 1 minute | Set by Google to distinguish users. |
_gid | 1 day | Installed by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously. |
ahoy_visit | 4 hours | This cookie is set by Powr for analytics measurement. |
ahoy_visitor | 2 years | This cookie is set by Powr for analytics measurement. |
CONSENT | 2 years | YouTube sets this cookie via embedded youtube-videos and registers anonymous statistical data. |
s_vi | 2 years | An Adobe Analytics cookie that uses a unique visitor ID time/date stamp to identify a unique vistor to the website. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | 5 months 27 days | A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. |
YSC | session | YSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages. |
yt-remote-connected-devices | never | YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video. |
yt-remote-device-id | never | YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
_reporter_session | session | No description |