Albanian Media Resist Campaign ‘Censorship’

Two leading Albanian TV stations have announced that they will not broadcast footage and commentary produced and provided by political parties during the campaign for the May 8 local elections.

Besar Likmeta

Tirana

Albanian reporters at press conference | Photo by : Besar Likmeta

The broadcasters, Top-Channel TV and Ora News, said that their decision comes as a way to safeguard their editorial independence.

“With this decision Top-Channel believes that is fulfilling its obligation to the citizens to provide impartial coverage of the campaign,” the TV station said in a statement.

“We refuse to be used for political reasons and we assure Albanians that they will see the real campaign, shot and covered by our own reporters and journalists,” Ora News, a 24-hours news broadcaster, underlined.

The move comes as both ruling and opposition parties are trying their hardest to finesse media coverage of the May local ballot.

By denying access to reporters to their campaign meetings, both ruling majority and Socialist opposition candidates are pressuring local TV stations to broadcast material produced by their own press offices.

Albania ranked 88 out of 173 countries in the 2009 Reporters without Borders ‘Freedom of the Press Index’. This rating represents a significant downgrade from 2003, when Albania ranked 34 and was the best performer in the Western Balkans.

While the deterioration of the independence of the media is a wider phenomenon in the Balkans, Albania has remained the worst performer since 2006.

In its interim report published on the eve of the electoral campaign, a local coalition of NGOs that will monitor Albania’s May 8 ballot has expressed concern about the coverage of the campaign in the local media.

“Electoral staff send the text and the photos that should be published to the print media and send already produced stories shot by campaign staff to the broadcast media, which is against the journalists’ mission, truth and the objectivity of the news that is transmitted,” the report said.

“Media outlets not only fail to meet their informative role but also contribute to the disinformation of the citizens by creating a virtual reality, which influences and manipulates the citizens’ vote,” the report added.