Rule of Law Albania with Albi Çela

In this episode of Rule of Law Albania, we are going to discuss with Erdoan Shipoli, a political scientist, on the rise of demagoguery around the world, but in particular in Albania and Kosovo, whose politics are very much intertwined with each other. We have leaders who appear to be idealists and upholders of democracy and the rule of law, who promise, but are not able to deliver. How can we change this? We have no formula for that, but we hope that our thoughts and opinions, can help shed a light on that direction.

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, i should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. This is how Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States of America, described the importance of press freedom in a democratic society.  Today, governments around the world, unlike Jefferson, prefer the former, and Albania is not far behind. In this episode, with my guest Pedro Pizano, we discussed at length the situation of press freedom in Albania, which is a continuation of our work on this topic.  A few weeks ago we also co-authored  an op-ed at Balkan Insight and Exit News which you can find at https://exit.al/en/2020/03/16/postponement-of-albanias-media-muzzle-shouldnt-fool-anyone/