During the Committee on European Affairs and Foreign Policy meeting on 23 January, representatives of Albania’s Socialist Party floated the idea of treating journalism as a regulated profession, comparable to medicine, with formal rules for recognition and registration.
This approach raises serious concerns for freedom of expression. It undermines a fundamental principle: the state cannot decide who is entitled to exercise a fundamental right and who is not. Journalism is an expression of freedom of speech and is protected because of its public watchdog role, not because of a status granted by the state.
Conditioning legal protection on formal registration or recognition risks transforming a universal right into a permit, opening the door to exclusion, filtering, and political pressure.
Read the full analysis by Blerjana Bino:
When Protection Becomes Permission: The Risks of Regulating Journalism as a Profession