AMC supports the protest of journalists and request the Parliament to withdraw the restrictive regulation

AMC supports the protest of journalists that is taking place today against the new regulation of the Albanian Parliament that restricts the freedom of journalists in taking part in several activities in the site of the Albanian Parliament.

AMC expresses its concern for this new act in restricting free reporting and freedom of information.

Parliament’s new regulation presents various problems. First of all, locking journalists in a room to watch various activities of the Albanian Parliament on TV is absurd, not to say ridiculous. The media should be where the event takes place, on behalf of the public and to inform the public. And the event occurs especially in the Parliamentary Committees, where with the new regulation journalists are not allowed to attend physically. The deprivation of this freedom is practically the deprivation of the freedom of information of the public. This is de facto ERTV-isation of the Parliament.

Second, the discrimination between journalists with badge of government-controlled institutions such as ART and ATSH (who are allowed to partake in activities) with journalists of other media, is another violation to the detriment of freedom of information. The Albanian Parliament has a duty to create equal conditions for the work of all journalists, and not discriminate among various media. AMC asks the Parliament of Albania to withdraw this regulation which helps to lower further the standards of media freedom in the country.