Tag Archive for: ALBANIA

In the newsroom of NEWS24 TV Channel: Ethics on revealing a child’s identity

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  AMC paid a visit today to the Channel News24’s newsroom, one of the oldest information television stations in the country, as part of a toru through Albanian media newsrooms. This visit was the first in a television newsroom, and moreover, a newsroom that “feeds” with news many portals and newspapers.The conversation included recent events related to ethics in the country, the situation of journalists, the responsibility for unethical journalism of the media owners.The conversation tackled the ethical question of whether the child’s identity should be protected in the news if his/her life depended on this news. In the News 24 newsroom there were cases where the child’s parents sought the public’s help to crowdfund the medication of sick children, but in order to build credibility on these cases and to encite the empathy and citizen engagement, newsroom journalists were forced to reveal the image of the child. Mark Mark, an ethics expert, argued that the child’s life is the most important, and ethical violations (such as not revealing the child’s identity) can be circumvented in order to protect life. Journalist Klodiana Lala noted the declining quality of newsrooms, which employ unprepared and unread journalists. In relation to the “ready-made tapes” produced by the City Hall, the Government and political parties, and broadcasted by television without being verified as news, the journalists stated that this is a problem caused by the owners and that the journalists are threatened with “job lose” . Regardless, the AMC said that the professional conduct asks of a journalist to resist if owners and editors try to distort reporting, force them to produce unethical reporting, or pressure them to take away their independence.NEWS 24 journalists were very interested in joining the fight against media law, a law aimed at controlling the media from the Government through the AMA, using fines and sanctions on ethical issues.Visits to newsrooms, supported by OSFA’s media project, will continue in the coming weeks in other Albanian media outlets.

Visiting the newsroom of Dosja.al: preparing for the moment when serious media will prevail

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Prof. Mark Marku, during the visit in the newsroom of Dosja.al

The Albanian Media Council resumed visits to the newsrooms of the Albanian media, visiting today the newsroom of DOSJA.AL where for 90 minutes there was a wide conversation on the ethics and everyday problems of the new media. Dosja.al is one of the few portals that puts the names of reporters on the homepage, an action that demonstrates a commitment to ethics and responsibility for published articles.

Journalist Sokol Shameti, during the visit in the newsroom of Dosja.al

The lack of media ethics in the recent earthquake panic,was also dscussed in the meeting. The panic was created above all by the need to shock instead of reporting the news.
One of the most pressing problems of online journalism was also discussed, the need for “clicks” abusing “ethics”.
“Writing about a banal status form a singer  takes thousands of clicks more than writing about water scarcity in the city,” one reporter noted. According to ethics’ expert, pedagogue Mark Marku, this is a temporary situation, similar to the “frenzy” in the post-90s media, but later, the development of the society only selected serious newspapers, instead of the unethical ones. The chaotic situation with the new media and the severe lack of ethics in some of them will in a few years lead to a selection of serious non-abusive media.
According to journalist and ethics’ expert Sokol Shameti, “switching from getting the news from newspaper news to getting them from a portal is similiar to the switch from craft to industrial production, and we need to find the means for “industrial production” of news to maintain the same standards and quality that had the “craft production” of news.
The CJM left the meeting with the feeling that another media outlet is committed to ethics and that an alliance of ethical media outlets in Albania is possible.

* This project is kindly supported by Open Society Foundation Albania (OSFA).

 

Albania: Government should withdraw “anti-defamation” legislative package introducing state regulation of online media outlets!

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On 3 July the Albanian Government’s Council of Ministers approved a series of amendments known as the “anti-defamation package” which include amendments to law Nr.97/2013 “On Audio Visual Media in the Republic of Albania and law Nr.9918 “On Electronic Communications in the Republic of Albania.” The legislative package is a cosmetic review of highly-criticised amendments submitted in December 2018.
26 July 2019
Our organisations raised our grave concerns with the proposed legislation during our June 2019 meeting with Prime Minister Edi Rama, urging that the amendments be brought into line with international standards. However the revised amendments of 3 July continue to fall far short of OSCE, Council of Europe and international best practice. The OSCE and local journalists and civil society have repeatedly raised their serious concerns that this package would be detrimental to freedom of expression online. We join Albanian civil society and independent media in calling on the Government of Albania to withdraw these two bills and call on parliament not to approve them.
Amendments to law Nr.97/2013 “On Audio Visual Media in the Republic of Albania
The draft laws approved by the Albanian government would empower a state administrative body to regulate the content of online media outlets. These draft laws seek to impose a regime of administrative control on online media through the Audio Visual Media Authority (AMA), a measure which is unprecedented in democratic states. Article 11/2 states that “the scope of work of the Complaints Council is to oversee the provisions of this law, the Code and regulations approved by AMA, particularly related to the respect of dignity and fundamental human rights.” The AMA is an institution whose board members are nominated and dismissed on the discretion of political parties. Through the Complaints Council that is part of AMA, the draft laws seek to replace a model of self-regulation of online media restrict the role of courts.
The changes proposed in the law Nr.97/2013 “On Audio Visual Media in the Republic of Albania,” indirectly impose the registration of the ‘provider of media services’ as a precondition to receive ‘fiscal benefits and other benefits of the kind.’ This draft law gives the Complaints Council the power to oblige electronic publications service providers to publish an apology, remove content or insert a pop-up notice in cases of violations of provisions on dignity and privacy. The obligation imposed on online media outlets to protect the ‘dignity and privacy’ of citizens is overly broad and vaguely defined.
We are concerned that it could empower the Complaint Council to become a censorship body, by ordering the removal of online media content on an almost discretionary manner and without a court order. An administrative body, such as AMA, cannot and should not shoulder competencies to review defamation, which should be adjudicated by the courts through criminal and civil procedure.
The draft law also empowers the Complaints Council to impose administrative fines that vary from 100,000 lek to 1 million lek (from €820 to €8200), which have to be paid before the legal review is exhausted. These administrative fines do not differentiate between private citizens and national broadcasters, raising concerns about proportionality.
Law Nr.9918 “On Electronic Communications in the Republic of Albania”
Amendments proposed to the law Nr.9918 “On electronic Communications in the Republic of Albania,” open the way for superimposed regulation of online media, not only from AMA but also from the Authority of Postal and Electronic Communications (AKEP). Changes proposed to article 137 of this law, expose ‘providers of electronic communications’, which do not abide by AKEP rulings/orders that relate to the acts and decisions of the Complaints Council of AMA, or any other body with legal competences in this field, to fines up to 100 million lek (€820,000).
Both proposed draft laws go against international best practices that aim at the self-regulation of online media and not its regulation by the state, through administrative censorship bodies. These draft bills also have not been drafted through a transparent procedure in consultation with all interested stakeholders, a concern we raised in a meeting with Prime Minister Edi Rama during our press freedom mission in June 2019.
We call on the Government of Albania to withdraw these two bills and call on parliament not to approve them, on account of the objections raised by journalists, civil society and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Instead of seeking further administrative regulations on defamation, the government should seek its complete decriminalization, as suggested by best international practices. We urge the government of Albania to ensure that a meaningful consultation process with journalists and civil society is undertaken with the next draft of the amendments.
ARTICLE 19
European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)
Reporters Sans Frontières/ Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO)

European Federation of Journalists reacts against the 2 draft-laws about online media

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As a result of the declaration made by a group of organisations for the protection of human rights, freedom of information and journalists associations,  demanding from the Albanian Prime Minister to drop the two proposals on regulation of online media, 2 powerful international organisations join them in this battle.

The European and International Federation of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ) have joined their Albanian affiliates, the Association of Professional Journalists of Albanian and the League of Albanian Journalists, and the other organisations on their request to the government to drop an amendment that are designed to take control of online media and that will put in risk online media freedom in Albania.

Read the full publication on the page here:

Albanian government must retract proposed laws on online media

European Federation of Journalists reacts against the 2 draft-laws about online media

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As a result of the declaration made by a group of organisations for the protection of human rights, freedom of information and journalists associations,  demanding from the Albanian Prime Minister to drop the two proposals on regulation of online media, 2 powerful international organisations join them in this battle.

The European and International Federation of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ) have joined their Albanian affiliates, the Association of Professional Journalists of Albanian and the League of Albanian Journalists, and the other organisations on their request to the government to drop an amendment that are designed to take control of online media and that will put in risk online media freedom in Albania.

Read the full publication on the page here:

Albanian government must retract proposed laws on online media

Statement: Government of Albania should retract proposed laws on online media

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In democratic countries, laws aim to protect citizens from the government and not the government from citizens

BIRN representative Gjergj Erebara and AMC representative Koloreto Cukali, during the press conference presenting the declaration against the 2 draft-laws that threaten the freedom of the online media.

A group of organizations for the protection of human rights, freedom of information and journalists associations demand from the Prime Minister to drop proposals on regulation of online media.

We inform the public that the two proposals endangers freedom of expression and could turn Albania in a undemocratic country and in the same time, are not helpful in tackling existing problems of the media, including hate speech, defamation, propaganda or disinformation.

The two draft-lawsi aim to create a registry of online publications and provide rights to an institution known as the “Complaints Council” to sanction online media based on third party requests, to order their closure or block of the access on such media in the territory of the Republic of Albania.

The draft-laws provide legal mechanisms for Audiovisual Media Authority (AMA) and Tax Authority to fine or close down online media without clear procedures. As such they pose a threat to seriously increase the level of censorship and self-censorship already present in Albania’s media scene.

We observe that the argument provided repeatedly by AMA and other officials, including Prime Minister Edi Rama, that the proposals are based on “Croatian model” is inaccurate. We have investigated such claims and found that no such laws exist in the Republic of Croatia.

If the ruling socialist parliamentary majority will enact these proposals, our hybrid democracy will inevitably slither toward an authoritarian regime. In democratic countries, the aim of the law is to protect citizens from the government and not to protect government from the citizens.

While acknowledging the numerous problems that currently plague online communications, including unnecessary offensive language, libel and hate speech, we believe that the current proposals fail to tackle such issues while in the same time, they have the potential to be used as pressure tools by the government against journalists and critics.

Self-regulation of the media, education and public awareness campaigns aiming to improve media literacy; awareness of propaganda, disinformation and fake news are the adequate tools to counter these problems – both online and offline.

Being aware that Albania has to align its legislation with that of the European Union, we observe that the two proposals risk setting back the process of European integration of the country.

List of signatory organizations:

BIRN Albania

Association of Professional Journalists of Albania

League of Albanian Journalists

AIS/Open Data Albania

Civil Rights Defenders

Albania Media Council

MediaLook Center

New Media Network

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Proposed laws are: ADDITIONS AND CHANGES TO LAW NR. 9918, DATED 19.5.2008 “ON ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS IN THE REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA”, AS AMENDED, CHANGES AND ADDITIONS TO LAW NO. 97/2013 “ON AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA IN THE REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA”, AS AMENDED