Highlight

Theatre

The National Theatre in Tirana risks being demolished, despite being an architectural gem with a remarkable historical value. The government wants to replace it with a huge shiny building, whose construction is exposed to speculation and lack of transparency.

Movie theatres in Romania are often empty when they show New Wave films: very few people in the country watch the Romanian films that are popular abroad – while audiences in the other European countries have not even heard of the Romanian films that have the highest success in the country.

When elections are not free and fair, they can turn into a sort of theatre play or TV fiction, where everyone plays a given role and the outcome is already set from the beginning. That's what happened in Azerbaijan last week, and what could happen in Turkey next June.

Luxury

If you are an Italian pensioner and decide to move to Albania, you can suddenly afford little luxuries like a fish dinner, even if you are low-income. More and more Italians go and live on the quiet and cheap Albanian seaside: but how big is this phenomenon? And how does it unfold?

Tourists visiting Georgia usually look for unspoilt nature and heritage. Yet Tbilisi elites argue that a massive real estate project can further boost tourism in the country. Trading the capital's green lungs for blocks of luxury apartments doesn't seem a good deal to citizens' organizations however.

More in the news: weak law provisions make the problem of sexual harassment in Southern Caucasus particularly worrying; microcredit and ethical finance are on the rise in Europe, but there are differences between East and West.

Two

The reintroduction of Italian on public signage is being debated in Rijeka (or Fiume). An official sanction of bilingualism is promoted by the Italian-speaking community of the Kvarner city, but its representatives are divided on the form that this should take. The question directly impacts on the local identity and future.

Repression of media freedom continues in Turkey, along with a more general crackdown of the opposition. Yet occasionally there is some good news, like the release of two journalists of Cumhuriyet that was decided last week – as Fazıla Mat reports.

Two female members of Yerevan City Council were physically and sexually attacked during a session of the institution, and were even later blamed for “inappropriate behaviour”. The incident shows that women are seen as a challenge to the still dominant patriarchal system in Armenia.

Brakes

The European Commission has renewed its strategy for the accession of the Western Balkans to the EU. An encouraging move, but with hands by the brakes. Francesco Martino looks at the main points raised in the EC document.

There’s no need to ride with hands on the brakes, if you are a cyclist in Ljubljana: the city is one of the most accessible European capitals for cycling. An interview with Lea Ružič, president of the Ljubljana Cyclists Network.

More in this newsletter: shelter cities are a crucial resource for human rights activists who are threatened at home, but what’s the state of the art across Europe? We also interviewed the creator of the first map of femicides in Turkey, an initiative that contributes to shed light on a neglected crime.

Data Journalism: last week, we launched EDJNet newsletter, covering European affairs through a data-journalism approach. You can subscribe here.

Hate

As hate speech is being debated more and more both online and offline, we decided to devote a special dossier to it, building on the materials of the Resource Centre on Press and Media Freedom in Europe.

Always faithful to his Albanian origins, renowned actor Faruk Begolli never hid his love for Belgrade. The great actor, who died in 2007, represented a bridge against hate. Jeton Neziraj recalls his story. This week, cinema is also at the centre of stage as the Berlinale unfolds: we looked at the current divide between Western and Eastern Europe in terms of cinema-going habits.

More in this newsletter: Plitvice lakes risk to be removed from the UNESCO heritage list; in Kosovo, 2017 was a violent year for journalists: 24 for attacks have been registered against the press and little is done to prevent new violence. And, finally, how many Italians currently live and work in Albania? There seems to be a political negotiation behind the inflated numbers disseminated by Italian press.

Hate

As hate speech is being debated more and more both online and offline, we decided to devote a special dossier to it, building on the materials of the Resource Centre on Press and Media Freedom in Europe.

Always faithful to his Albanian origins, renowned actor Faruk Begolli never hid his love for Belgrade. The great actor, who died in 2007, represented a bridge against hate. Jeton Neziraj recalls his story.

More in this newsletter: Plitvice lakes risk to be removed from the UNESCO heritage list; in Kosovo, 2017 was a violent year for journalists: 24 for attacks have been registered against the press and little is done to prevent new violence.

Islands

Poor connections turn villages in northern Albania into a sort of islands, especially in winter. It's a wild and beautiful region, suffering from poverty and massive depopulation however: new projects are trying to relaunch the local economy, as Francesco Martino reports.

Over millennia, the Strofades islands hosted the mythical Harpies, Aeneas, and several monks and saints, but are now inaccessible and their heritage is crumbling. Fabrizio Polacco made it to there, and was captured by the peace and history of these Greek isles.

More from the news: what neoliberalism means for the Turkish society; an interview with Romano Prodi on Albania's crisis in the 1990s; and, from Georgia, the story of Mariam, 21, shepherd and student and an article on gambling, a real plague in the country.

Borders

Along its border with Iran, Turkey is building a 144-kilometre wall to reaffirm control over a region that appears fragile in the midst of the Middle East crises. "But paths, villages, and families are more ancient than any border" comments Rezan, a former smuggler, in a reportage by Dimitri Bettoni.

A controversial urban development plan in the city of Himara, Southern Albania, is affecting the property rights of the Greek minority living in the area, heating up bilateral relations between Tirana and Athens.

More in the news: journalists continue to face limitations in South-East Europe. We’ve looked at the story of journalist Jovo Martinović in Montenegro, and we’ve reported on the Sofia edit-a-thon devoted to media freedom.

Charges

Former general Ratko Mladić was given a life sentence by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, because of the major crimes he committed during the war – including his responsibilities for the Srebrenica genocide. Yet public opinion in Serbia paid little attention to the charges against him, and to the reasons of the verdict.

Massive investments in infrastructures and finance are a sort of admission charge for China to expand its influence in Europe. Beijing is becoming more and more active in the economy of the Balkans, which are seen as a testing ground for the superpower's growing ambitions in the West.

More in this newsletter: while male victims of homicide have been decreasing in Europe, female haven't: we looked at the data and trends on femicide in many different countries. In Macedonia, the trial on the "Kumanovo case" has ended, but it didn't clear all the doubts on what really happened in those days of 2015.

Double

Opening the Western Balkans Media Days last week in Tirana, Edi Rama confirmed the practice of speaking with two tongues: one for the European audience, marked by openness and commitment to democratic reforms; another one, for the local public, charged with intolerance and insults against reporters and journalists.

Kurdish women in Turkey are challenging old gender roles and hierarchies in a number of ways. City authorities in the region now have a double president, and women's courts, assemblies, and media have been created to complement the traditional ones.

More news: Zoran Zaev's landslide victory in the local elections in Macedonia, and the overall success of the first Pride Parade in Kosovo.

Save the date! The second edition of the Wiki4MediaFreedom edit-a-thon will take place in Sofia on November 27th!