The government's Media and Information Agency launched an open call on Thursday for the recruitment of new staff, public communication professionals, as the government faces protests targeting high corruption and the lack of transparency in decision-making for investments in public properties.
"Do you have an idea that can make public communication better? Tell us," the agency's public announcement states, which outlines two employment options: as an internal agency employee or as an associate.
The call does not have clear definitions of employment criteria, but leaves the opportunity open for people interested in "expertise" and "innovation".
For more than two months, Albania has been engulfed by a marathon anti-government protest, known as the “Flamingo Revolution,” which began as opposition to a tourism project in the Vjosa-Narta protected area and turned into a broader movement against corruption, lack of transparency, and the way the government administers public property and assets.
The protests have challenged the image cultivated by the government at home and abroad as a promoter of tourism development and foreign investment, shifting the public debate to the links between the government and 'strategic' investors, the lack of transparency, and accusations of favoring business interests at the expense of property and the public interest.
MIA Director Manjola Hasa told BIRN that this is not about a number of vacant positions that will be filled, but about an initiative that aims to completely reform the entire institution and the way of institutional communication as a whole, based on the new trends that will apply.
"This is a reform that starts with the communication of public institutions and we are open to any new idea that will come, whether for spokespersons for ministries, new communication ideas on social platforms, taking into account the development of technology, as well as other expertise that focuses on communication," said Hasa.
According to her, the call should be seen as the first step in implementing a new government contract with citizens, which starts precisely with public communication.
The agency has an approved staff of 69 employees, who work as a press office for public communication of Prime Minister Edi Rama and his ministers.
International media organizations have called for the closure of this agency, describing it as a "propaganda ministry" that further consolidates government control over information. /Taken from Reporter.al
