Albanian President Ilir Meta voiced a strong criticism against the government today after the parliament passed the controversial anti-defamation law. Meta said the media freedom has worsened and many journalists and reporters have left the country because their lives were in danger.

The President also mentioned the case of writer Agim Tufa who sought asylum in Switzerland after threats to him and his family.

President Meta was speaking in the annual conference with the topic “Freedom without hate, freedom of speech in front of the other human rights”.

“An OSCE/ODIHR preliminary report of a few months ago said important media serve as lobbying platforms for their owners, by imposing self-censorship, which is an alarm belle for the disconcerting freedom of speech in Albania”, Meta told the conference, calling on Albanians to never forget their past sufferance and persecution.