MONITORING REPORT ON HATE SPEECH IN ALBANIA – 2025
October 1, 2025
This report depicts the situation of Hateful and Discriminatory Discourse (HDD) in the Albanian media environment, analyzing the prevalence, forms, trigger events and severity of the discourse based on reported incidents retrieved from media monitoring.
Media monitoring was conducted by Albanian Woman in Audiovisual (AWA) during January 2024 – June 2025, using the same methodology as in previous reports. In total 96 HDD incidents were reported during the monitoring period, which were subject of quantitative and qualitative data analysis.
The most prevalent HDD incidents for the reporting period were against gender (40.6%), journalists (12.5%) and political opponents (12.5%). The HDD against gender remains concerning and widespread, while that against journalists and political opponents has significantly increased, compared to the previous reports. The positive change is the reduction on the HDD against sexual minorities, ethnicity and religion.
Main trigger events that correlate with the increase of HDD against journalists and political opponents were the parliamentary elections held in May 2025, the arrest of the Mayor of Tirana, ongoing investigative articles published, level of media independence and institutional accountability. These developments shaped the tone, prevalence and sentiment of HDD.
