Albania
Monthly Monitoring Highlights – May
During the month of May, the RDN monitoring team identified a range of hateful narratives and discourse driven by sexism and misogyny, alongside hate speech and intolerance, denial of war crimes and misinformation. Bullying and misogyny on reality TV in Albania During the last days of April and the beginning of May 2026, the reality TV program “Ferma …
Born as a guest: The unwritten code denying Albanian daughters their heritage
In many Albanian families, the question of inheritance is not decided in courtrooms or by law, but around kitchen tables quietly, almost automatically. Daughters are often left out of these conversations, not because the law excludes them, but because tradition does. For generations, it has been widely accepted that a girl does not truly “belong” to …
Monthly Monitoring Highlights – April
During the month of April, the RDN monitoring team identified a range of hateful narratives and discourse driven by hatred towards people with disabilities, political opponents and journalists, alongside sexism, xenophobia and misogyny. Sexism and misogyny in Albania and North Macedonia On 20 April 2026, Klan TV aired an episode of “Shije Shtëpie” featuring a …
Not Just a Statistic: Media Responsibility in Reporting on Victims of Sexual Violence
Content warning: This article discusses sexual violence, abuse, and the treatment of victims in media coverage. Some readers may find this distressing. “If you or someone you know were sexually assaulted, would you please stand. If you or that person you know was assaulted by someone they knew, would you please raise your hand. And if you or that …
Monthly Monitoring Highlights: a range of harmful narratives, including those targeting journalists
Throughout March, the RDN monitoring team identified a range of harmful narratives, including those targeting journalists, gender-based harassment, as well as misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, and Islamophobic discourse. Across the region, these patterns were further reinforced by sensationalist and unethical media reporting, contributing to a hostile environment for journalists, activists, and marginalised groups, and undermining democratic dialogue and accountability. …
Monthly Monitoring Highlight February
During the month of February, the RDN monitoring team identified a range of hateful narratives and discourse driven by hatred towards people with disabilities, xenophobic and Islamophobic narratives, ethnic discrimination and online gender-based hate. Hatred spread towards people with disabilities in Albania During a live broadcast of the reality television show Big Brother VIP 5, …
Troll of the Month: Laert Vasili
The Balkan Troll of the Month is an individual, a group of individuals or a media outlet that spreads hate based on gender, ethnicity, religion, or other diversity categories. The Balkan Troll is selected based on hate speech incidents identified across the Western Balkan region. On 10 February 2026, during the recording of Përputhen on Top Channel, actor, …
Monthly Highlights January: Sensationalism, Sexism and Nationalism
During January, the RDN monitoring team identified a range of hateful narratives and discourse driven by sensationalistic reporting, sexism and misogyny, nationalism and ethnic hatred. Sensationalistic and unprofessional reporting in Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina Albanian media reported extensively on a serious case of sexual abuse involving a 12-year-old girl who was found to be approximately 22 weeks pregnant following a medical …
The Metamorphosis of Prime Minister Edi Rama: From Hate Speech to the Use of Deepfakes
Prime Minister Edi Rama has targeted journalist Blendi Fevziu, host of one of Albania’s most-watched political talk shows, Opinion, through a series of posts on social media that used images generated by artificial intelligence (AI), known as “deepfakes.” These posts were accompanied by denigrating and delegitimizing language directed not only at Fevziu personally, but at …