Anti-corruption Archives

Seizure Order Against Albanian News Portal Condemned

Posted on April 22, 2021January 26, 2023 by BIRD

Human rights and media freedom groups have sharply criticised a decision by a judge, Iliriana Olldashi, at Albania’s Special Court Against Corruption and Organised Crime, SPAK, to approve a prosecutorial request made last Sunday to seize any computer, mobile phone or other electronic equipment belonging to the online publication Lapsi.al.

Experts and rights organisations called it a blatant attempt to intimidate journalists in breach of their human rights and the principles of the European Court of Human Rights, ECHR.

Prosecutors launched an investigation after Lapsi.al revealed the existence of a massive database purportedly belonging to the ruling Socialist Party containing information on each voter, including background, voting history, family links or employment status.

Prosecutors ordered Lapsi.al to hand over the database but the editors refused, saying that could expose their source or sources.

“The intervention of the prosecutors and the court against Lapsi.al’s right to report on a matter of public interest is just another attempt by those in power to intimidate the media,” Flutura Kusari, a legal advisor at the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, ECPMF, told BIRN.

“Instead of investigating the breach of privacy by the Socialist Party, they are attempting to intimidate journalists and their sources,” Kusari added, saying that the decision contravenes the standards of the ECHR.

Dorjan Matlija, a human rights lawyer in Tirana, told BIRN that the court decision was based on flawed reasoning.

“The prosecutors have other possibilities to investigate the matter based on the accusations of the opposition Democratic Party against Prime Minister [Edi Rama] and other officials,” Matlija said.

He added that before approving such a request, the court should have considered the need to protect the sources, an obligation deriving from several decisions of the ECHR.

In the latest such decision, published this month, Sedletska vs Ukraine, the ECHR ruled that an order to expose a source may only be issued after all other ways to investigate a matter have been exhausted.

Matlija added that the judge’s unexpected order creates ground for further violations of media freedom and could expose more than one source of information. “The order practically could end up shutting down the media outlet [Lapsi] by seizing all its equipment,” he added.

Andi Bushati, co-owner of Lapsi, told BIRN that prosecutors had not yet acted on the court order, and that in the meantime he had appealed the decision.

He said the prosecutors seem more eager to identify their source than interview Socialist Party officials over the database. “They seem more concerned in finding out who betrayed the party and not who stole the personal data,” he said.

Kusari, from ECPMF, told BIRN that they were informing Albania’s international partners about this and related issues. “We hope that international pressure will help halt the pressure against the media,” she said.

The Life and Times of Red Mud Reservoir № VII

Posted on June 26, 2020January 26, 2023 by BIRD

The Life and Times of Red Mud Reservoir № VII’ is a collaboration between an anthropologist (Ian M. Cook) and a graphic artist/illustrator (Gyula Németh) about a bauxite tailings storage facility in the settlement of Almásfüzitő, Hungary. It is based on the investigative story previously published by the Atlatzo.

It is one output from the project ‘Black Waters’, a hybrid investigative-research and advocacy project that responds to the need for engaging reporting on environmental damage, corruption and the consequences for social justice in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Over twelve months, a team of researchers, journalists and audio-visual artists developed novel multimodal methodologies, conducted mixed-methods research, and reported their findings.

Project is run by the Center for Media, Data and Society at the Central European University in partnership with Atlatszo and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. It was supported by the Open Society Initiative for Europe. The research team further included Alexandra Czeglédi (research assistant), Gabriella Horn (investigative journalist) and Márta Vetier (researcher).

The non-public figures who appear in the following pages are composite characters based on interviews in the settlement. They are not intended to represent real people. The story is narrated by the reservoir itself and covers the historical, political, theoretical, cultural and social aspects of Red Mud Reservoir № VII and those who live in its vicinity.

Corruption Fight Faltering in Balkans, Central Europe, Transparency Says

Posted on January 23, 2020January 26, 2023 by BIRD

Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia scored worst in the Western Balkan region with 36 and 35 points respectively, which put them in 101st and 106th place on a list of 180 countries.

Both declined from last year, when Bosnia was ranked in 89th place, with 38 points, and North Macedonia came in 93rd place, with 37 points.

Bosnia shares its 106^th place with Albania, which also declined in the rankings. It came in 99^th place last year.

Bosnia’s western neighbour, EU member Croatia, fell from 60^th place last year to 63^rd place in 2019, its score declining from 48 to 47 points.

The scores for its eastern and southern neighbours, Serbia and Montenegro, did not change.

Serbia, however, fell in the rankings from 87^th to 91^st place, while Montenegro slightly improved its position, moving up from 67^th place in 2018 to 66^th place in the 2019 list.

Moldova scored worst in the whole of Southeast and Central Europe. With 33 points, it ranked in 120^th place on the list.

Greece, on the other hand, saw the biggest improvement in Southeast Europe, scoring 48 points and ranking in 60^th place.

This year’s Transparency International report also compared the latest results with those from 2012. In that context, in the Balkans, Bosnia’s result again appeared concerning, revealing a consistent decline. “With a score of 36, Bosnia and Herzegovina significantly declined by six points on the CPI since 2012,” the report noted.

Turning to Bosnia’s specific problems, it noted: “The country also suffers from weak enforcement of campaign finance regulations. During the 2018 elections, political parties and civil society organizations raised concerns over voting irregularities, threats against voters, the misuse of public resources and unequal access to the media.”

Global Corruption Perception Index for 2019. Photo: Transparency International

The organisation divides all countries into six geographical groups: Americas, Western Europe and the EU, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia Pacific.

It then measures perceived levels of corruption in each state and awards points from 0 to 100. A score of 100 points means “very clean” and 0 means “highly corrupted”. Based on the score, TI then compiles a ranking list.

Lidija Prokic, from Transparency International, told BIRN that the scores were in some ways more important than the ranking. “Rank is good in the sense that it gives us a picture of where a particular country stands in the wider and regional environment,” she explained. “But when we look at what is happening at a level of the country, it is more important for us to look at the score, because then we can see if there is any notable improvement or decline,” she said.

Prokic told BIRN that, on average, the group of countries containing the Balkans scored higher only than the African countries.

Looking at these countries as a whole, she said TI detected an overall declining trend. “We see a lot of effort to weaken the regulations that require disclosure of party campaigns [expenses],” she told BIRN. Efforts could also be seen to “bring money from unknown sources to political life”, she added.

“What certainly influenced the score is governments’ efforts to limit the space for civil society, limit the possibility for independent control and silence critical voices,” she added.

EU countries in Central Europe ranked higher than countries in the Balkans. Poland was ranked in 41^st place, the Czech Republic in 44^th place and Slovakia in 59^th place.

But some EU member countries in Central Europe and the Balkans lagged far behind.

Hungary and Romania both came in 70^th place and Bulgaria was even lower down, in 74^th place.

As for the winners, there were few surprises. Eight of the top ten places on the list went to EU countries in Western Europe, namely Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Netherland, Germany and Luxembourg and also Switzerland and Norway.

The only two from outside the region were New Zealand and Singapore. All of them scored 80 to 87 points.

Prokic said that in the field of regulation and institutional integrity, those countries were still in a better position than many non-EU states, but the trends were worrying.

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