The absolute winner for EU Investigative Journalism Award in Albania for year 2016 was Alisa Mysliu for her series of TV stories exposing food safety issues in Albania, broadcast by investigative TV program “Fiks Fare” of national Top Channel TV. The series of programs addresses the issues of how safe the practices relating to food quality and trading in the country are, focusing on different aspects and chains of the food treatment and commerce. The program had a great echo in other media and in social media, and also prompted for measures taken by the authorities in regard to food safety.

 

In early 2016 the first program addressed the issue of illegal practice of importing old chicken, lacking nutritious values, from Greece that was passed as young and fresh poultry in Albania. The report covered trading practices with Greece and Italy. After the program, the Minister of Agriculture banned for two weeks the importing of poultry, until the situation was cleared out. In addition, the inspector involved in facilitating this practice was fired.

 

The second program was broadcast in September, examining the production practices of meat products in some factories in the country. The TV report showed to the public the existing problems in the production process, while also exposing the corruption of official food authority inspectors that allowed such unacceptable and unsafe practices to proceed.

 

The third and final program of this series resulted from an investigation of several months, focusing on the hygiene of trading milk in plastic bottles in certain markets in Tirana. The report tracked the way plastic bottles were sourced and then packaged, carrying out also the lab tests necessary to determine the hygiene level. The milk resulted to be with the highest microbial content in the market and a danger to health.  

 

Alisa Mysliu has 14 years of experience working for “Fiks Fare” program, one of the earliest and best-known investigative programs in the country. During the award ceremony she acknowledged the importance of having this background and how it helped her grow in her profession: “I am very honored to receive this award, it is an excellent experience. It is the culmination of 14 years of doing this job, in a great TV as the Top Media and Fiks fare program.” She also highlighted the importance of journalism as a way of helping people. “It is a very tough job, but it is worth the effort, as you raise the voice for those people that are not able to do it on their own. You expose problems to the public and it is very satisfactory to see that sometimes problems, or part of them, are solved thanks to your work.”