Freedom House, Albania's level reduced
05/06/2012

The Freedom House organization is expected to publish the annual report “Transit Countries 2012”, which analyzes the democratic developments in Central and Eastern Europe, together with the former Soviet Union countries.

Top Channel has secured a copy of the report, where Albania has went some places lower, as regards the electoral processes, the justice system independence and democracy. This is the conclusion of Freedom House for the recent political developments in our country:

“There was no progress during 2011, after some troubled years that are keeping Albania far from the EU candidate status. A high profile corruption scandal that implicated the Deputy Prime Minister caused anti-government protests, where the security forces killed four persons. The local elections were characterized by violence, while the court decisions regarding the May 8th local elections were treated partially by causing Albania to fall in the justice system independence framework, after the influence of politics”.

The report also refers to the murder of the Vlore judge, Skerdilajd Konomi, marking the first killing of a judge in the history of the country. Same as in the recent evaluation of Freedom House, the Albanian government is received 4.75 from 7 points.

Less than Albania were ranked Bosnia and the newest country in the world, Kosovo, the government of which received 5.75 points. Albania remains the last in the Balkan list as regards the local administration, receiving 3.25 points.

The justice system has fallen at 4.75 in Albania, but it has improved in Kosovo with 5.5.

War against corruption received 5 points, unchanged since 2007, while Kosovo’s goes to 5.18 for democracy. The level of democracy in Albania fell to 4.14.

As regards the electoral processes, Albania has fallen with the recent elections to 4.25.

The media independence index remains the same, with 4 points.

Freedom House is an NGO in New Your, founded in 1941, which has been considered an advocate of democracy by monitoring the human rights.

Freedom House has included Albania in its rankings since 2003