Prime Minister Edi Rama on Tuesday highlighted 245 applications for new positions and subcontracting work at Albania’s Agency for Media and Information (MIA), using the interest in the recruitment process to mock critics who describe the agency as a government propaganda tool.
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In a Facebook post, Rama said the applicants included recent graduates, journalists, IT specialists, media organizations and graphic design studios.
“245 applications from excellent recent graduates, journalists, IT specialists, media organizations, graphic design studios and many others,” Rama wrote.
According to Rama, applicants submitted ideas for simplifying the language of the state, making information more understandable for citizens, producing more systematic informational videos, increasing the use of artificial intelligence and developing more creative formats across the MIA network.
Rama’s comments come amid the longest-running anti-government protest movement Albania has seen in years. The demonstrations, known as the “Flamingo Revolution,” began over opposition to a tourism project in the protected Vjosa-Narta area and have since expanded into broader criticism of corruption, transparency, public property and alleged links between political power and business interests.
Critics have repeatedly described MIA as part of a centralized government communications system and have accused it of functioning as a propaganda mechanism. Rama’s latest post appears aimed directly at that criticism, presenting the large number of applicants as evidence of professional interest in the agency rather than as support for the characterization of MIA as a propaganda structure.
Meanwhile, the protests continue for a 107th consecutive day, keeping the government’s communication strategy and its handling of public criticism firmly at the center of Albania’s political debate.