Milazim Salihu was shocked to hear on the news on June 15 that his best friend, renowned actor Bekim Fehmiu, had died at the age of 74 after committing suicide in his apartment in Belgrade.

Dragan Janjic says a new study released this week is no guarantee that the reforms it calls for will be carried out. Experience suggests media laws in Serbia are often ignored.

Two decades after the fall of the isolated Hoxha regime, Albania’s literature is still largely unknown to the outside world - mainly because there aren’t enough skilled translators.

Thanks to official neglect, more than a decade after top international artists donated 160 valuable works to the Ars Aevi project, they’re still not on show.

While some managers welcome the obligation to raise 30 per cent of their funds independently, others fear the target will be impossible to meet in such a poor country.

Newspaper circulation wars and a relentless struggle for high TV ratings in the mainly privatized media are pushing cultural journalism to the wall.

After decades of decay, investment and tourists are returning to Gjirokastra, the ancient city that produced both the writer Ismail Kadare and the dictator Enver Hoxha.