ACQJ editorial office
For years, the story of Albania’s democratic transition has been portrayed as a slow but steady process of convergence with European standards. But a new assessment by human rights monitors suggests that another, more corrosive trend has taken shape in parallel: a systematic and multifaceted campaign to hollow out the country’s civic life by targeting the very people who monitor it.
A report published this week by the Swedish organization Civil Rights Defenders paints a bleak picture for 2025, describing a climate where journalists, environmental activists, and civil rights advocates are facing a double whammy: state-sanctioned pressure on one hand, and digital-age intimidation on the other.
While the country's official laws remain nominally committed to freedom of expression, the report details how governance mechanisms and a wave of hostile online activity have combined to create an environment where the cost of dissent is becoming increasingly high.
“Human rights defenders in Albania are operating under the shadow of intimidation,” says the report, which synthesizes data from international monitors and local civil society organizations. “From attacks on journalists on election day to the use of the judicial system as a weapon, the means to silence critics have become increasingly diverse and normalized.”
The court as a weapon
According to the report, one of the most powerful instruments in this campaign is the use of strategic lawsuits against public participation, known as SLAPPs. In Albania, defamation remains a criminal offense, a provision that media freedom advocates have long described as a “sword” over the heads of journalists.
The report documents how powerful business interests and public officials have turned the courtroom into an instrument of pressure. Through baseless lawsuits, but with high financial and psychological costs, the goal is not necessarily victory in court, but rather the fatigue and exhaustion of critics.
In one of the most significant cases cited in the report, a hydroelectric power company sued three Mirdita residents after they protested the environmental impact of its activities. According to legal observers, the objective was clear: to drain the activists’ financial and moral resources, forcing them to choose between civic engagement and their livelihoods.
While the European Commission has repeatedly called for Albania to fully decriminalize defamation, the report notes that reform efforts, including a partial legal package adopted in early 2026, have been criticized as exclusionary, as in some cases they extend protection only to “registered” journalists, which critics see as a form of state filtering and control.
Surveillance and the “Magic Eye”
The report also raises concerns about the expansion of state surveillance, which digital rights experts say is taking place with limited transparency and without strong legal control mechanisms.
The government's "Smart City" project, which includes the massive deployment of high-resolution security cameras and the integration of real-time facial and license plate recognition systems, has been promoted by Prime Minister Edi Rama as a "magic eye" for public safety.
However, civil society activists warn that this infrastructure has been built without sufficient institutional oversight. For activists and protesters, the fear is concrete: that the state is building a system capable of tracking every protest, meeting, or political organization.
These concerns are further compounded by the history of massive data leaks in Albania, where in recent years sensitive data, from voter lists to the salaries of public administration employees, have been exposed.
A climate of impunity
The findings suggest that threats against journalists and activists are rarely random. Instead, they often occur after periods of intense public scrutiny, such as the parliamentary elections of May 2025.
During that period, at least 20 journalists and media outlets faced verbal or physical obstacles, while officials and supporters of political parties frequently interfered in the reporting process.
The most shocking incident occurred in August 2025, when police surrounded the offices of Focus Media Group, one of the country’s leading media organizations, and effectively took it off the air, citing an administrative ownership dispute. Without a court order and without prior warning, hundreds of employees were locked out of their workplaces.
However, despite the high profile of these incidents, the report finds that legal accountability is almost non-existent. Criminal prosecution of police officers, officials or private actors who threaten journalists remains rare, creating what the report calls “a permissive environment” where abuses go unpunished.
The digital narrative of "betrayal"
The pressure on critics is not just physical or legal; it is also psychological and public.
The report documents a rise in online disinformation campaigns, where independent organizations and public monitors are systematically labeled as “traitors,” “foreign agents,” or “puppets of George Soros.”
For organizations like Faktoje.al, one of the leading fact-checking platforms in Albania, these narratives have turned into ongoing campaigns of online attacks, including direct threats, publication of personal data, and incitement of hate speech.
For defenders working on marginalized issues, such as LGBTI+ rights, women's rights, or advocacy for the Roma community, harassment is even more severe, including threats of a sexual nature, misogynistic language, and public exposure of personal data.
Ultimately, the report concludes that civic space in Albania is not collapsing in an immediate and dramatic way. On the contrary, it is gradually eroding. By combining the weight of the state with the chaos of anonymous online attacks, the architects of this pressure have created a new normal: a reality where the most essential job of democracy, holding power accountable, has become an act of high personal risk.acqj.al
