The organization Freedom House, based in the United States, estimates that Albania and Kosovo are among the countries with partly free press. In the report of this organization, published on Wednesday, Kosovo is ranked 96th with 49 points, while Albania in 106th place, with 51 points.
The clasification is done on a scale from 0 to 100, where zero is the most positive result, while 100, the worst result.
Albania is ranked behind Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina. From the region, only Macedonia lags behind. A year ago, Albania and Kosovo were ranked 98th. Among Eastern European countries, Montenegro is ranked 80th, while Serbia 87. At the worse place are ranked Bosnia and Macedonia, respectively at 104th and136th place.Macedonia, along with Turkey, are classified as countries with no free press and rank last in Europe. The report of the organization "Freedom House" states that violence and migrant crisis have dominated the news in Europe in 2015, having influenced their coverage. Although not dramatically as the murders in France, on the editorial board of the "Charlie Hebdo", attacks against journalists in the Western Balkans have contributed to the decline of press freedom.
In Serbia, many journalists have suffered physical attacks, which has led to increased self-censorship. Serbia has dropped in the rankings due to the hostile government rhetoric (Aleksandar) Vučić against investigative journalists, censorship and reducing the opportunities for critical and independent reporting. According to Freedom House only 14 percent of the people live in a society with a free press.