Month: December 2024

The president of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik. Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR.

Following Milorad Dodik’s most recent attack on the N1 journalist Snezana Mitrovic, the Media Freedom Rapid Response consortium joined Bosnian media organisations in condemning the “insulting and threatening behaviour of the President of Republika Srpska.”

“We call on the politician to publicly apologise and end all intimidating practices against all media,” the Europe-wide mechanism which tracks and responds to violations of media freedom in EU Member States, Candidate Countries, and Ukraine, stated on Wednesday.

“Our organisations further warn that this aggressive rhetoric towards a member of the media, and indications of state monitoring of media, are the latest examples in a decades-long list of pressure by Dodik against journalists and independent media in the Republika Srpska,” MFRR added. 

Mitrovic, a reporter with N1 television, was attacked by Dodik at a November 16 press conference when she questioned him over ties to individuals arrested in a drug-trafficking operation. 

Dodik accused N1 of spreading falsehoods, promoting an “anti-Serb narrative,” and attempting to harm Republika Srpska, which is one of two entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He forcefully tried to take away the microphone from Mitrovic, threatening the N1 team by implying surveillance, telling them: “Do you think we don’t have a service that follows what you are doing?”

Afterwards, Dodik called Mitrovic on her private phone, berating her over N1’s coverage of the press conference.

This was not Dodik’s first outburst against media and journalists, MFRR noted.

“Unfortunately, this type of behaviour has continued with impunity for years. Dodik has repeatedly labelled critical journalists as traitors and enemies of the state, and made threats against them, including multiple verbal attacks on female journalists,” MFRR said. 

A recent mission to the country facilitated by the MFRR concluded that the antagonism shown towards critical journalists in Republika Srpska, especially by Dodik, jeopardises media freedom and fosters a sense of insecurity within the journalistic community.

The MFRR added that the claim about government surveillance of N1, and possibly other independent media in the entity, warrants a “potential investigation of utmost seriousness.”

Photo based on the work of Christopher Burns.

Southeast Europe and Hungary have seen an alarming rise in digital rights violations, particularly during periods of domestic political turbulence, elections, and regional and international upheaval, according to the latest annual report by BIRN.

The Digital Rights Violations report 2022-2023, presented in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo on Tuesday, covers Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Turkey.

Monitoring the period September 1, 2022 to August 31, 2023, BIRN registered 1,427 cases of digital rights violations, almost double the previous tally of 782.

The report reflects the complex nature of digital rights challenges in the region, highlighting the role of governments, the weakness of legislation, and the targeting of vulnerable groups.

Most violations involved hate speech, discrimination, digital manipulation, and computer fraud.

“Domestic, regional and international political developments had a direct impact on digital rights violations,” the report states. “During domestic crises and elections, digital rights violations spiked, as they did at times of regional and international tensions.”

Surge in disinformation

Individuals were among the most common victims and perpetrators, committing more than 500 violations during the monitoring period, followed by anonymous perpetrators hiding behind fake identities.

However, BIRN also registered numerous violations committed by online media, public figures, and politicians. State institutions were more often victims, sometimes of severe data breaches such as that perpetrated by a hacker group operating under the name Homeland Justice and targeting Albania’s parliament in late 2022 and early 2023.

BIRN editor Ivana Jeremic highlighted the concerning trend of gender-based violence in the digital space, citing in particular the murder in Bosnia of a woman by her husband, who live-streamed the killing on Instagram.

“Not only did the video remain online for hours, but people interacted with it, some even showing support, which was devastating for the family of the woman,” Jeremic said.

A research paper by Anes Cerkez, looking at youth-specific digital rights violations and also presented by BIRN on Tuesday, highlights a number of distressing cases, including one of cyber-bullying that led to the suicide of a 22-year-old man in Bosnia in October 2022. There were also instances of child pornography, underscoring the need for enhanced media literacy education for young people as well as their parents.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, disinformation campaigns have surged globally. Among the targets was Romania’s army, with the defence ministry warning in March this year of false posts on TikTok and Instagram about men being mobilised.

In the Serb-majority north of Kosovo, ethnically-charged incidents over the summer heightened tensions. Attacks on journalists critical of Serbia’s ruling party or the Orthodox Church increased, fuelled by violent confrontations between local Serbs and NATO-led peacekeepers.

North Macedonia witnessed continued ethnically-motivated hate speech as well as discriminatory statements targeting the LGBT community. This included hate speech spread by TV host Milenko Nedelkovski on Facebook concerning a journalist of Albanian origin.

In Montenegro, minority groups, primarily Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church, experienced targeted online hate speech in over half of the 26 registered cases. Bosniaks and Muslims also faced ethnic intolerance, with incidents involving the public, media outlets, and public figures amplifying discriminatory narratives.

AI ‘deep fakes’

Jeremic also highlighted the “numerous violations” following a May 2023 mass shooting at a Belgrade elementary school, when police disclosed the identity of the 13-year-old perpetrator and the personal data of his parents. There were also numerous examples of fake news following the shooting.

A new trend identified by BIRN involved the use of artificial intelligence to create ‘deep fakes’ and generate fake news. “The lack of regulation in the region leaves it to readers and platforms to deal with this kind of content,” Jeremic said.

Legislation that should protect digital rights remains inadequate in many of the countries monitored, while some government utilised new laws to target critics and independent media.

Cyber violence against women persisted due to legal gaps and data collection shortcomings.

The cases and data on them can be found in BIRN’s database, established in 2020 in partnership with the SHARE Foundation.

Kosovo journalist Valon Syla (left) in courtroom on Ddecember 7, 2023. Photo: BIRN/Laurant Berisha

Pristina Basic Court on Thursday sentenced three defendants for the attack against a Kosovo journalist to two years of imprisonment each. The first-instance verdict can be appealed.

Lum Dervishi, Okan Hasani and Kemal Hasani were found guilty of causing light injuries to Valon Syla when they assaulted him on April 11 in Pristina’s Bregu i Diellit (Sunny Hill) neighbourhood while he was going home after participating in a TV debate.

None of the defendants was present when the judge announced the guilty verdict, which Syla welcomed. “Today, I know there is justice in this country … that protects the rights of each of us when we do not trade justice and have the patience and courage to wait for justice’s verdict,” Syla said.

“Police reacted and caught the fanatical assailants in record time and justice was rewarded with a deserved verdict,” he added. The prosecution indictment alleged that Syla’s attackers were “motivated by extreme radical Islamic ideologies”.

The court rejected Syla’s request for 30,000 euros in compensation.

Syla received medical treatment for his body injuries while his assailants fled the scene in a car. They were arrested the next day.

Speaking from Pristina hospital after receiving treatment, Syla said that he was assaulted by “three Islamic fanatics”.

Syla is CeO and Director of Kosovo news portal Gazeta Metro. He later alleged that the attack was likely linked to comments he’d made on social media about a local imam who received a Mercedes as a gift from worshippers on the day he retired.

The attack against Syla was condemned by the Association of Journalists of Kosovo, AJK, and European Federation of Journalists, which asked for an “urgent investigation” into the incident.

“This attack is totally unacceptable and is an attempt to hinder and undermine freedom of speech and freedom of media in Kosovo,” the AJK said.

Turkish investigative journalist Metin Cihan has said he will not delete his tweets on X (Twitter) about a former PM’s son’s dealings with Israel, despite a court ruling.

In his tweets, Cihan revealed that Erkam Yildirim, son of former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, a close associate of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has continued to trade with Israel despite Erdogan’s party calling for a boycott of Israeli produce.

“I do not delete [Tweets]. Not claims, official sources available to everyone. That’s why you [the Yildirim family] could not even deny it. I responded to the reported [court] decision exactly like this,” Cihan said on X.

Cihan added that the judges had made a political decision. “It is not binding to me that you arrange judges [to make this decision]. I do not delete [Tweets] for Palestinian children,” Cihan added.

FreeWeb Turkey reported on Thursday that a court in Ankara had ordered Cihan to delete all his Tweets about Yildirim and his son, Erkam.

Cihan has been looking at Turkish trade with Israel since the war started between Hamas and Israel and has published his findings on his social media accounts.

Using open-source data, such the maritime trade archive, Cihan revealed that Turkish trade continues undisrupted, despite the government’s harsh stance against Israel, accusing it of genocide against Palestinians.

Members of Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP, have called for a boycott of Israeli products and several large rallies condenming Israel have been organised by the party and its allies.

But Cihan revealed that senior AKP members continue to trade with Israel, including Burak Erdogan, President Erdogan’s son, Erkam Yildirim and an AKP lawmaker, Vehbi Koc.

The Erdogan family sued Cihan for slander and insult on November 29 but did not directly deny claims about doing trade with Israel.

“While the attack on Gaza was continuing, we sent 400 ships to Israel. We shipped 4,000,000 tons. We provided fuel for the Israeli planes, clothing for its soldiers, and parts for its weapons. Thank God, we sent our prayers to the Palestinians. Do not forget Palestine,” Cihan wrote on X on December 7.

Cihan has been forced to live in exile in Germany due to several ongoing cases and investigations against him in Turkey.

He previously reported on the murder of a girl called Rabia Naz in Giresun province in 2018. It is claimed that senior AKP former defence minister Nurettin Canikli covered up the murder.

During the pandemic, Cihan also revealed that the Health Ministry was manipulating the data on COVID-19 cases. In 2022, Cihan revealed an Islamist youth NGO’s secretive ties to the government and to Erdogan’s family.

The research revealed that even though 96 per cent of people in Bosnia and Herzegovina have regular internet access, there is a lack of awareness about online privacy and rights among the country’s youth.

Bosnia and Herzegovina also lacks comprehensive legislation addressing online abuses and child protection, resulting in unpunished online criminal activities due to the absence of any legal definition of the internet as a public space.

Parental knowledge gaps and limited media literacy compound the challenges, as highlighted in research by Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Regulatory Agency for Communication and the UN children’s fund UNICEF. Bosnia’s Republika Srpska entity introduced a curriculum subject called ‘Digital World’ in schools in 2021, but media and information literacy remain noticeably absent from regular curricula in other parts of the country, as BIRN’s research highlighted.

Digital violence becomes commonplace

Infographic: BIRN/Igor Vujcic.

According to BIRN’s findings, young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina are active users of the internet and social media, primarily engaging in communication, entertainment activities and information-gathering. Instagram is the most popular platform, but trust in social media varies among the young people who were surveyed.

Safer Internet Centre: Supporting children online

Established in 2018, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Safer Internet Centre serves as a vital resource for children and youth seeking help and support in navigating the digital world.

Through prevention programmes, an SOS line for reporting inappropriate content, and a support line for victims of digital violence, the Centre provides crucial assistance.

The Centre’s initiatives aim to create a safe digital environment through preventive measures and timely interventions. For more information, see www.sigurnodijete.ba.

Alarmingly, one in three high school students surveyed has experienced hate speech from their peers online, and every fifth student has faced some form of discrimination by their peers. This suggests that high school students are both victims and perpetrators of digital violence, showing that relevant institutions should examine the causes of this behaviour and develop strategies to reduce or prevent it.

While the students surveyed said that social media keeps informed about local news, the research highlighted significant gaps in digital education. More than half of those surveyed said they are unaware of the concept of digital rights, while digital safety isn’t integrated into regular curricula.

Risky online behaviour and exposure to inappropriate content are widespread, and 48 per cent of parents do not monitoring their children’s online activities, the survey suggested. Previous research indicates that parents in Bosnia and Herzegovina often lack sufficient knowledge of how to ensure children’s safety online, while also lacking media and digital literacy.

Despite acknowledging the positive aspects of the internet, students know little about reporting mechanisms for harmful content. The lack of regulatory measures for online protection, coupled with inconsistent initiatives across Bosnia and Herzegovina’s various administrative units, makes curbing violations more difficult. Digital violence, once uncommon, is now a widespread issue among students.

What should be done?

Infographic: BIRN/Igor Vujcic.

BIRN’s report suggests that to address concerns about the negative impact that digital rights violations are having on young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, collective efforts are needed.

Digital rights and safety education should be integrated into school curricula, with a focus on responsible internet use and critical evaluation of online content. Educational programmes should promote positive internet use and raise awareness about hate speech and discrimination consequences. Reporting mechanisms should be promoted among young people, and anonymous reporting channels established.

Teachers need training to effectively teach digital rights, and schools should collaborate with parent councils to raise parental awareness. Continuous monitoring of online trends and mental health support for students facing online violence is essential.

Clear legal and policy measures to combat online hate speech and discrimination, harmonised across the country’s administrative units, are necessary. Financial support for institutions like the Safer Internet Centre is crucial, along with public awareness campaigns about online safety.

The research concludes that creating a safer digital space for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s youth requires a multi-faceted approach involving educators, parents, policymakers and the wider community.

This approach should prioritise digital education, establish reporting mechanisms and foster a collective commitment to positive online behaviour as crucial steps towards a safer online environment.

The full research report can be found here.

Anes Cerkez is the author of ‘Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Youth Online: Victims and Perpetrators of Digital Rights Violations’.

Grigoris Dimitriadis, nephew and former secretary of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, filed exorbitant strategic lawsuits against public participation or SLAPPs against media and journalists over reports about the wiretapping scandal known as “Predator-gate”, in which he is allegedly involved, a union said.

The Journalists’ Union of Athens daily newspapers, ESIEA, on Thursday claimed Dimitriadis “unleashed a flurry of new lawsuits against many journalists and the media and with exorbitant and exterminating claims”, to intimidate journalists and limit access to information.

Dimitriadis sent lawsuits to the media outlet Efimerida ton Syntakton, EfSyn, the media group Alter Ego and to journalist Dimitris Terzis, and for a second time to journalists Thanasis Koukakis, Nikolas Leontopoulos, Thodoris Chondrogiannos and Christoforos Kasdaglis.

In August 2022, Dimitriadis resigned following revelations of his alleged involvement with Intellexa, a company that sells Predator, an illegal spyware in Greece.

He denied wrongdoing and sued the media involved – Reporters United, EfSyn, as well as the journalist Koukakis, whose phone was infected with Predator.

His resignation was followed by that of the head of the National Intelligence Service, EYP, Panagiotis Kontoleon.

The wiretapping scandal, which has occupied the Greek media since 2022, concerns the use of Predator to monitor or attempt to monitor journalists, politicians and other public figures.

Dimitriadis now accuses Koukakis of indulging in systematic defamation of him through X [formerly Twitter] by reproducing articles insulting him over the wiretapping scandal. He is seeking 300,000 euros plus an extra 1,000 euros per day if he does not withdraw his tweets

“It is no coincidence that Dimitriadis is suing journalists and media at a time when important aspects of the wiretapping scandal are being revealed,” Koukakis told BIRN.

“The specific revelations reveal the role he played in the case in a period when he was responsible for Greece’s national intelligence service. The journalists involved in covering this unprecedented scandal they are not daunted or discouraged from such practices and are providing Greek justice with new evidence on a daily basis,” he added.

Dimitriadis filed a second legal action against EfSyn and the journalists Nikolas Leontopoulos, Thodoris Chondrogiannos and Christoforos Kasdaglis, members of the investigative media outlet Reporters United, over EfSyn’s cover of November 3 regarding the wiretapping scandal.

It wrote that Dimitriadis’ mobile phone number was used to infect 11 people with Predator.

The former PM’s secretary has demanded 2.45 million euros in compensation for the moral damage which he claims to have suffered.

“The investigation by EfsYn and Reporters United on the wiretapping scandal is a matter of public interest as it concerns democracy and the rule of law in Greece. Dimitriadis decided, instead of giving more answers, to proceed with legal actions before and after the publications and to file lawsuits. However, all these will not silence us,” Chondrogiannos told BIRN.

EfSyn and its journalist Dimitris Terzis received another legal action from Dimitriadis over the publications in the print edition and on the efsyn.gr website that followed the November 3 report.

“Both on the front page of 3/11 and in the related publications of our printed and electronic edition up to 8/11, there is neither the intention nor the suggestion of a slanderous reference,” stated EfSyn in a written announcement.

“Neither in the original publication nor in what followed in the wake of the original is it stated that the SMS were sent by Dimitriadis himself. It is reported that infected Predator messages were sent to 11 recipients using his mobile phone number,” it added.

The Council of the European Union announced on November 30 that it had reached a provisional agreement with the European Parliament over a directive designed to protect journalists and human rights defenders from abusive court proceedings, such as SLAPPs.

The International Press Institute, IPI, a global organisation dedicated to the protection of press freedom, has accused Greece, Italy and France of lobbying to legitimise state spying on journalists.

“IPI is concerned by revelations that France, Italy Greece and other governments are pushing for loopholes for ‘national security’ regarding the surveillance of journalists amidst the final stages of EU negotiations on the European Media Freedom Act,” IPI wrote on X (Twitter).

Three EU media, Investigate Europe, a cross-border team composed of EU reporters, Disclose, a French non-profit organisation, and Follow the Money, a platform for independent investigative journalism based in Holland, revealed in an investigation that Greece, France, Italy and Cyprus are among seven EU countries lobbying on a broader wording in the European Media Freedom Act, EMFA, which would permit the use of spyware for “national security” against journalists.

After the Council of the EU on June 20 adopted the first draft of the EMFA, Reporters Without Borders RSF called on MEPs to reverse the “national security” exception, describing it as a danger to journalism.

“We call on the amendment’s authors to reverse it and we urge the European Parliament to reject this useless and dangerous provision, which would poison this law from within,” wrote RSF.

“That the interior ministries of established democracies could associate themselves with such rogue-state practices represents a grave precedent in the European process,” it added.

The investigation contains a file written by a high-ranking German official, presenting the minutes of the EU Council of Permanent Representatives meeting on November 22 about the EMFA.

The file reveals that Italy took the strictest stance on national security. France, Finland and Cyprus also stated they were “not very flexible” on this issue. Sweden, Malta and Greece also agreed “with some nuances.”

The EU Council and parliament and Commission will decide on Friday on the new EMFA law, which will set the provisions for journalists’ surveillance – or not – by state authorities.

Seventeen EU media organisations on December 1 called on MEPs to adopt a robust wording in the final version of the EMFA that would ensure a high level of journalistic protection and recognise the conditions under the ECHR and case-law under which interferences with journalists’ freedoms can be justified, “in particular the requirement of a prior order by an independent and impartial judicial authority”, they wrote.

Greece has attracted international attention for the wiretapping scandal of journalists, politicians, business people and other individuals by the secret services using the illegal spyware Predator.

On a blogspot page titled Global News Express, Paul had republished an original BIRN article from February 15 this year about a cyber attack on a Greek media outlet after it reported that Ayavefe’s wife had secured fake ID papers from an organised crime gang. The date of publication on the republished text was changed to February 1 to make it look like Global News Express was the original publisher.

Then on December 14, the hosting company forwarded another copyright complaint, this time from an individual named Sharon Henkel purportedly based in France. The complaint claimed that the text was originally published on a Tumblr account called ‘mindbluray’ on July 21, 2022 but BIRN’s text was actually first published on July 26. Again, the date on the republished text had been changed.

The hosting company asked BIRN to fix any potential problems and reply within 24 hours clarifying “what the problem was, how you resolved it and what steps you have taken to prevent it from happening again. Otherwise, it should let us know why exactly you think the report is not valid. If you fail to comply within the stated deadline, the IP may be locked”.

BIRN responded within the deadline, stating that the claims are false and the two articles in question were original BIRN content.

In the case of the July 2022 article, both the original and the republished text contained direct quotes from email correspondence between BIRN and Ayavefe representatives between July 20 and 25, quotes that could only have come from original BIRN reporting. It also carried the same illustration as the original text, which was the original work of a BIRN designer.

Gurkan Ozturan, coordinator of Media Freedom Rapid Response at the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, a nonprofit that promotes and defends media freedom, said the copyright complaints appeared to represent a new method of attacking independent media.

“It seems like a new method has been discovered, to copy an independent media organisation’s original news article, publish it backdated on another platform and file a take-down order through threat of legal processes based on copyright infringement allegations,” Ozturan told BIRN. 

“While it has been a method used by some reputation management companies, I am personally seeing this kind of censorship attempt targeting media for the first time; it seems simple, but this has the potential to have a negative impact on independent journalism if it turns into a trend.”

Malicious

In September 2022, BIRN’s flagship website, Balkan Insight, and that of its Greek partner media outlet Solomon faced two days of hacker attacks following the publication of a joint investigation into how Ayavefe bought his way to honorary Greek citizenship despite a 2017 fraud conviction in Turkey and his arrest in 2019 in possession of a fake Greek passport.

Offline, Ayavefe sought to put legal pressure on BIRN to delete its reporting about him.

When BIRN refused, a person called Bener Ljutviovski, who presented himself as a representative of Ayavefe, suggested that BIRN could receive certain advertising revenue if it deleted the article. 

In September, Turkey’s Media and Law Studies Association reported that Ayavefe had succeeded previously in getting Turkish courts to remove 201 items of online content about, including some on the website of the Turkish police force.

Ozturan said that digital platforms and service providers should be prepared for such “malicious” tactics.

“I sincerely hope that digital platforms and service providers are prepared to withstand this kind of malicious attempt to harm media organisations and independent journalists, if these incidents are repeated in the future,” he said.

Efstratios Mavraganis, a lawyer and legal adviser at the Journalists’ Union of Macedonia and Thrace in Greece, told BIRN: “The purpose of the complaints is not to protect the complainant’s copyright, but to prosecute BIRN because its published reports are not to their liking. The complainants’ main purpose is to cause damage and harm to BIRN.”

“Large companies should normally check the validity of complaints before sending them.”

The hosting company told BIRN it has “no way to check or verify” the veracity of a copyright complaint, “so we forward the report to the customer to make a statement and either confirm or deny the allegations”.

“We will always take into account the customers’ response, but you will have to respond to EVERY report, as with hundreds of thousands of customers and tens of thousands of abuse reports every day, we unfortunately cannot filter reports, but have to forward all of them.”

A new report prepared by journalist Ali Safa Korkut from the Media and Law Studies Association, MLSA says Turkey’s courts in 2022 blocked hundreds of accounts and thousands of tweets on X (Twitter).

“In 2022, access to at least 4,427 Twitter URLs, including 487 Twitter accounts and 3,940 tweets, was blocked. This number was reached by 393 court decisions,” the report entitled “Baby, The Bird is Dead. 2022 Twitter Access Blocks Report” funded by the EU said.

The report also classified the blocked tweets. According to this, 2,106 tweets on public officials, 1,126 tweets on illegal betting sites and terror, 316 tweets on individuals and 118 tweets on public institutions were blocked.

The report underlined that certain courts lead the access block decisions.

“When the distribution of the authorities that blocked the most tweets is looked at, three criminal courts of peace from Ankara were in the top five. Ankara 6th Criminal Court of Peace ranked first with 2,024 tweets, followed by Ankara 3rd Criminal Court of Peace with 153 tweets and Ardahan Criminal Court of Peace with 140 tweets,” the report wrote.

The legal basis for access blocks was mostly because of violations of personal rights and protection of national security.

“In 2022, 2,909 tweets were blocked based on this article [violation of personal rights]. This means that almost three out of every four tweets are blocked for this reason. In second place was ‘protection of national security and public order’, with 1,031 tweets,” the report wrote.

In terms of blocked accounts, the main reason cited was protection of national security.

“In 2022, 465 accounts were blocked based on this article [protection of national security and public order]. In second place was the violation of ‘personal rights’ specified in Article 9 of Law No. 5651. The number of accounts blocked based on this article in 2022 is 22,” the report noted.

Under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rule, Turkey has blocked many social media platforms, including YouTube, Wikipedia, Twitter and TikTok, using draconian laws and regulations.

Courts and public agencies are increasingly ordering access blocks to social media content. The watchdog Freedom House’s Internet Freedom Status ranking classifies Turkey as “not free”.

This article has been amended on December 20, 2023 to clarify that the report is prepared by journalist Ali Safa Korkut not by the Media and Law Studies Association, MLSA.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s claim that the government can rapidly align the country’s laws with those of the EU using Chat GPT – so avoiding the costs that come from translations and lawyers – has drawn a sceptical response from some experts.

BIRN sent a request to the Prime Minister Office asking how the initiative would be implemented when no laws currently regulate the use of AI in the country, nor is there a national strategy about it.

It replied that they would use a “model that is internationally regulated” and have reviewed measures regarding the ethical and responsible use of AI.

“First, the model only consumes public data to perform the necessary information-retrieval,” it told told BIRN. “Secondly, regarding accountability, we emphasize that the model is an assistance tool for alignment experts, never a substitute, increasing their productivity and efficiency,” it added.

But some doubt the planned use of AI will amount to much.

Medlir Mema, Head of the Program on Artificial Intelligence and Global Governance at the Global Governance Institute in Brussels and professor of International Relations in the United States, told BIRN that, “regarding legislation or national strategy, it is clear that there is no such thing in Albania”.

“As for the data, it is impossible for OpenAI to do its work without having access to state data, including the laws in force in Albania, as well as those on private individuals. When it comes to confidential data, it is difficult to separate them from such a complicated process as completing the chapters for membership in the EU,” Mema told BIRN.

“Finally, the argument for not replacing people contradicts PM Rama’s speech in the SP [Socialist Party] Assembly, where he specifically underlined this argument. The truth is that the chapters are not completed without human supervision,” he concluded.

Another expert, Ornela Sollaku, from the Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies-UOM, told BIRN that an important factor to be taken into consideration in this case is the legal gap.

“This legal gap may lead to uncertainty among citizens and EU officials regarding its effectiveness. The indiscriminate use of AI raises ethical concerns related to privacy, transparency, and the potential for unintended consequences,” Sollaku told BIRN.

She stressed that human expertise remains key in the process. “An over-reliance on AI systems can foster a false sense of security. Human expertise and oversight remain essential to validate and interpret the results of AI algorithms,” she said.

When Rama presented the initiative earlier in December, he said that after a conversation with Mira Murati – who is of Albanian origin and works at OpenAI and has lead the company’s work on ChatGPT –  he realised the platform could be used to align the country’s laws with those of the EU.

“I asked if it is possible that, instead of recruiting an army of translators, a battalion of lawyers and spending who knows how many tens of millions of euros to prepare the mountain in Albanian with EU legal measures, we should do this through Chat GPT,” Rama said. “This is how the work started with Mira and a joint team that we created with AKSHI and its experts,” he added.