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Albania
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Electronic media in Albania is a relatively recent addition to the media. The list of electronic media is growing at a rapid rate. AlbaNews is a mailing list dedicated to the distribution of new and information about Albania, Kosovo, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, and Albanian living around the world. Major contributors to AlbaNews are Kosova Information Center, OMRI, Albanian Telegraphic Agency, Council for the Defense of Human rights and Freedoms in Kosova, and Albanian Weekly (Prishtina). Electronic Media newsgroups for Albania include soc.culture.albanian, bit.listserv.albanian, clari.news.Europe.Balkans, alt. news.macdeonia, soc.cuture.yugoslavia, and soc. culture.europe.
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Albania is a republic with a multiparty parliament, a prime minister, and a president elected by the Parliament. The prime minister heads the government; the presidency is a largely ceremonial position with limited executive power. The Socialist Party and its allies won 121 of 155 parliamentary seats in 1997 elections held after a 5-month period of chaos and anarchy. Observers deemed the elections to be acceptable and satisfactory under the circumstances. However, the largest opposition group, the Democratic Party, boycotted Parliament from October 1997 to March 1998 and again from June 1998 through year's end, charging unfair practices by the ruling Socialists and their coalition partners. The Socialist Party chairman, Fatos Nano, formed a government following the elections and remained in office until September 1998, when he resigned following a series of often violent demonstrations against his administration.
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For the majority of its media history, Albania has had only one principal news agency, Agjensia Telegrafike Shqiptare. There are three media associations, the Journalists Union, the Professional Journalists Association, and the Writers and Artists League. E.N.T.E.R. is the first Independent Albanian News Agency. Founded in 1997 by a recognized group of well-known independent journalists, E.N.T.E.R. negotiates contracts for the sale and distribution of news with independent newspapers, private radio stations, state radio and television stations, state institutions, and international organizations.
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Since the fall of communism in 1990, Albania has launched economic programmes towards a more open-market economy. The democratically elected government that assumed office in April 1992 launched an ambitious economic reform programme to halt economic deterioration and put the country on the path towards a market economy. Key elements included price and exchange system liberalization, fiscal consolidation, monetary restraint, and a firm income policy. These were complemented by a comprehensive package of structural reforms, including privatization, enterprise, and financial sector reform, and creation of the legal framework for a market economy and private sector activity. Most prices were liberalized and are now approaching levels typical of the region. Most agriculture, state housing, and small industry were privatized, along with transportation, services, and small and medium-sized enterprises.
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Background: Between 1990 and 1992 Albania ended 46 years of xenophobic Communist rule and established a multiparty democracy. The transition has proven challenging as successive governments have tried to deal with high unemployment, widespread corruption, a dilapidated physical infrastructure, powerful organized crime networks, and combative political opponents. Albania has made progress in its democratic development since first holding multiparty elections in 1991, but deficiencies remain. International observers judged elections to be largely free and fair since the restoration of political stability following the collapse of pyramid schemes in 1997. In the 2005 general elections, the Democratic Party and its allies won a decisive victory on pledges of reducing crime and corruption, promoting economic growth, and decreasing the size of government. The election, and particularly the orderly transition of power, was considered an important step forward.
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As a part of the Ottoman Empire, Albania became a mostly Muslim territory. During the communist regime, religion was officially banned, and Albania was proclaimed as the first and only Atheist state in the world. Today, with the freedom of religion and worship, Albania contains numerous religions and denominations; ... within a nonreligious majority that amounts to 75% of the total population. Despite such secularism, the US State Department noted that most Albanians associate with a religion, to which the majority associated with Islam. Other main religions of the world also have some small representation in Albania. Religious fanaticism has never been a problem, with people from different religious groups living in peace.
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