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ALBANIA
I.
Opposition parties protest pro-government bias.
We, the Albanian
parliamentary opposition parties involved in the
political groupings Union for Democracy and Albanian
United Right, held a meeting on 26th January 1999 and
noted with profound concern that:
- Albanian
Radio-Television [RTSh] continues to be a docile
instrument in the hands of the ruling parties for
the implementation of their political ends;
- The opposition forces
lack the scope necessary for them to communicate
with their tax-paying electorate;
- The new leading RTV
[Radio and Television] Council is not taking the
necessary measures to compete with the private
media stations and survive by fulfilling its
tasks towards the public and national interests.
Therefore, we
demand the following:
1. That pluralism in the public media outlets be
guaranteed by law through the revalidation of Law No 8410
of 30th October 1998 on public and private radio and
television stations in the Republic of Albania and the
first paragraph of Article 1 of Law No 8243 of 17th
September 1998, which demands that the RTSh guarantee
equal conditions for the ruling parties and the
opposition to express their opinions, respects the
proportional allocation of airtime on the basis of the
percentage of votes won in the last parliamentary
elections, and also provides the minimum necessary
airtime for the small parliamentary and nonparliamentary
parties.
2. That the decision on the creation of the new
RTSh Council be revoked and that a new council be elected
on the basis of consensus among the ruling parties and
the opposition.
3. That RTSh General Director Ardian Klosi and TVSh
Director Eduard Mazi be dismissed.
4. That the financial independence of the RTSh be
guaranteed. It is necessary to have a truly public,
pluralistic and national RTSh.
‘Rilindja
Demokratike,’ Tirana, January 28, 1999
II. Radio/TV
reform goes ahead under new media law.
New law on
private and public electronic media which entered into
force on 4th November 1998 is expected to change all the
structures of the Albanian Radio-Television (RTSh), the
only state institution of electronic media.
Albanian
parliament approved the new leading council of the
Albanian Radio-Television which has all the legal powers
to elect administrative and leading structures in order
to work out the platform of RTSh and to supervise the
work in the institution.
Sources from RTSh
said that in its first meeting, the council would set up
a working group to deal with the status of the public
television.
The council was
expected to ask for a confidence motion for present
officials of the powerful station of electronic media in
Albania, due to a change from state to public
institution.
“It is very
important that all the structures of the RTSh function
according to the law,” Sefedin Cela, RTSh
vice-director, said to ATA.
He added:
“New law urges totally new structures and not
improvements in the existing ones. Because it is
here that one can misinterpret the new law because a
partial reform would compromise the law itself.”
All employees who
are working in the RTSh, part-time collaborators and
others who have worked before will undergo a test.
“Professionalism
and skills will be the basis of selection,” Cela
said.
Importance should be devoted to the selection of
people who will work in main departments, particularly in
administration and programme departments, which,
according to the law, will be totally at the service of
the public who is the taxpayer of the radio and
television.
ATA news agency,
Tirana, January 27, 1999
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