Albania
Monthly Highlights October: ethnic hatred, sensationalism, unprofessional reporting, sexism, and political motivations
During October, the RDN monitoring team identified a range of hateful narratives and discourse driven by ethnic hatred, sensationalism, unprofessional reporting, sexism, and political motivations. Ethnic hatred and violence in Montenegro Between 25 and 28 October 2025, a series of violent and xenophobic incidents unfolded in Montenegro following an attack in Podgorica’s Zabjelo neighborhood. Late …
Troll of the Month: Media platforms across Albania
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 6 October 2025, Judge Astrit Kalaja was shot and …
Monthly Highlights September: glorification of war criminals, ethnic hatred, misinformation and anti-LGBTQI+ rhetoric
During the month of September, the RDN monitoring team detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse fuelled by sexism and glorification of war criminals alongside anti-LGBTQI+ rhetoric, misinformation and ethnic hate speech. Sexism and glorification of war criminals in Bosnia and Herzegovina The cultural event “Kočićev zbor” (Kočić’s Assembly), held on August 29, 30, …
Breaking Words, Building Bridges: Regional Experts Warn Against Rising Polarisation in the Balkans
Hate speech in the Western Balkans is becoming more complex, layered, and increasingly used as a political weapon, according to new media monitoring reports presented at the regional conference Breaking Words, Building Bridges: Responses to Polarisation in the Western Balkans held in Belgrade, Serbia. The Reporting Diversity Network (RDN) showcased its third set of reports …
Monthly Highlights August: Ethnic discrimination, religious hate and hatred towards politicians and journalists
During the month of August, the RDN monitoring team detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse fuelled by religious hate, ethical tensions and hatred towards politicians and journalists. Religious hate in Bosnia and Herzegovina Sanin Musa, leader of the “Faith. People. State.” movement and president of the Bosnian People’s Party, announced the arrival of …
30 years since the Srebrenica genocide: Genocide denial persists in regional media
8372 Bosniak men and boys were killed by the Army of the Republika Srpska on July 11, 1995, in what is widely recognised as the largest massacre in Europe since the Second World War. This year marked three decades since the genocide. Here is how the media in the region reported before, during, and after …
Monthly Highlights July: Ethnic discrimination, sensationalism, genocide relativisation and denial and the restriction on personal freedom
During the month of July, the RDN monitoring team detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse fuelled by genocide denial and relativisation alongside ethnic discrimination, sensationalism and the imposition of restrictions on personal freedom. Ethnic Discrimination in Serbia and Kosovo In Serbia, on the morning of July 29th, masked individuals—later revealed to be a …
Monthly Highlights June: Ethnic discrimination, sexism, online harassment alongside hatred towards journalists and genocide denial
During the month of June, the RDN monitoring team detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse fuelled by sexism and ethnic discrimination alongside online harassment and cases of genocide denial and hatred towards journalists. Ethnic discrimination fuelled by the media in North Macedonia In North Macedonia, a headline was published reading “ПРИТИСНАЛ НА ГАС, …
Monthly Highlights May: Sexism and racism alongside gendered, ethnic and religious hate speech
During the month of May, the RDN monitoring team detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse fuelled by sexism, racism, and Islamophobia alongside ethnic and gendered hate speech. Sexism in Kosovo and Albania Local elections are supposed to be held in Kosovo in September, but political parties have already begun preparations to gain as …