The Council of Europe has published the annual report on freedom of the press and media for 2020: "Hands off Press Freedom: Attacks on the Media in Europe should not become the new normal".
The annual report from the partner organizations to the Platform of the Council of Europe to promote the protection of journalism and the Safety of Journalists also mentioned the case of domain blocking of the JOQ Albania.
What does the European Council report say?
On November 30, 2019, the Electronic and Postal Communications Authority blocked the news portal joqalbania.com by order of the country's prime minister. Likewise, in Albania there were a series of legal changes in laws no. 9918 "On electronic communications in the Republic of Albania" and No. 97/2013 "On audio-visual media in the Republic of Albania" that would empower the state and the authorities to regulate content published by online media. This legislation was presented as an "anti-defamation" package and was approved by the Council of Ministers on July 3, 2019. The Albanian Parliament overwhelmingly approved these changes in December 2019. Media freedom organizations warned that the package would replace current online media self-regulation with state regulations and dismissed the last-minute changes as cosmetic. After the veto by the Albanian president, the parliament and the majority agreed to wait for the opinion of the Venice Commission before voting on the legislative package under an accelerated procedure in March 2020.
So Albania is one of the countries mentioned in the EC's annual report on freedom of the media and the press, where the government is criticized for trying to control them by proposing changes in the country's legislation.
