Albanian TV channel fined for exposing minister's sexual demands

Albania's Top Channel TV has been fined €400,000 (£334,000) for broadcasting a tape that showed a former government minister asking for sexual favours from a young woman in exchange for a job.

A Tirana judge ruled that the recording had been obtained illegally and therefore the TV station must pay damages to the former minister of culture Ylli Pango.

The broadcast, on the investigative programme Fisk Fare, showed Pango holding a meeting with an applicant in his villa, during which he asks the woman to remove her clothes and wear a bikini in order to assess her suitability for the tourism job.

Thirty minutes after the broadcast, in March, Pango was fired by the prime minister. He later claimed he was the victim of a media sting.