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On the Road to a Free Press in Albania: Evaluating Outside Aid Efforts

Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia, James Cox Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research (1995), 21 pp.

Contains illustrations

Signature commbox: 432:10-Cooperation 1995

"There are no neat prescriptions for nurturing a free press in a society that has little or no democratic legacy. Every step is a first step and there are no well-worn paths or time-honored institutions. There have been obvious successes in Albania. The technical and material aid to the newspapers has propelled production practices from the 1940's into the 1990's in only a few short years. Broadcasting, while still laboring under the yoke of government ownership, is changing due to cultural and political influences from abroad, and aid programs have put the building blocks in place to offer alternatives to government programming when and if laws allow. But technical successes are only part of the recipe for building a free and independent media. Albania's most potent legacy is one of totalitarian rule, and without a great deal of political maturation, the aid given to the media could easily be turned into a tool for exploiting the seamy and the sensational. Or worse; the underdog free press could become the lapdog of yet another repressive regime." (Conclusion)