April 20 (SeeNews) - Albania remained at the same 82nd position in Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) latest freedom of press ranking, the non-governmental organisation said on Wednesday.
In regional comparison, media freedom in Albania was better than in Moldova (76th), Montenegro (106th), Bulgaria (113th) and Macedonia (118th), but worse than in Bosnia (68th), Croatia (63rd), Serbia (59th), Romania (49th), and Slovenia (40th), the World Press Freedom Index 2016 showed.
"Despite the freedom of information laws adopted in 1999 and 2014, access to state-held information continues to be limited and the broadcast media regulatory authority, the AMA, is politicized," RSF said.
The European Commission has recommended that Albania should implement better the legislation guaranteeing freedom of expression, the organisation noted.
Defamation has been punishable by fines rather than imprisonment since 2012, it added.
Published by RSF annually since 2002, the World Press Freedom Index measures the level of freedom available to journalists in 180 countries using the following criteria – pluralism, media independence, media environment and self-censorship, legislative environment, transparency, infrastructure, and abuses.