To mark the publication of the first Media Observatory Report (MORE) of the ALGREE project, Alexandra Voudouri and Celik Rruppli appeared on the TV programme “Good Morning Albanians”, where they talked about the project’s rationale and emphasized the media’s role in creating negative stereotypes.

Presenting the topics covered in the Report, they explained how the media handled issues of great sensitivity for both communities between May and October 2022. They then went on to highlight the opportunities the media missed to play a constructive role and mirror the efforts being made by both governments to resolve bilateral issues along with Albania’s integration into the EU.

The interview focused on how the Greek media report crimes involving people of Albanian origin, with Alexandra Voudouri explaining that TV programmes and popular news websites persist, wrongly, in highlighting culprits’ country of origin when this is Albania, even though the majority were actually born and raised in Greece. She also stressed that the Greek media omitting the country of origin of young people whose parents were of Albanian nationality in its reporting on the recent railway accident in Greece is a positive exception, which she views as a result of the Albanian community’s successful integration into Greek society.

The interview was part of the media dissemination strategy of the ALGREE – “Albania-Greece: Understanding. Connecting. Partnering” project powered by the Open Society Foundation for Albania (OSFA) and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom Greece and Cyprus (FNF).

Click to watch the interview, in Albanian and English.

Read the relevant texts published on Euronews Albania (in Albanian) here, here and here.