Albanian Public Television stops sharing live signal for free during Parliamentary sessions

The Albanian Public Television refused to give the signal that is given based on a gentleman agreement for years now.

The Parliament’s regulation allows only the public television to broadcast live from Parliament. The opposition reacted immediately, asking the session to be interrupted until the conflict was resolved.

But the public television reacted later, explaining that they have created a dedicated channel, called RTSH Parliament, which broadcasts everything with full transparency, and that they have no legal obligations to give their signal for private radio and televisions.

RTSH explains that private outletsn have been notified about this change, and if they want signal, they will have to share the technical cost for producing the signal. But Top Channel confirms that such notification has never arrived on our offices.

The RTSH Director, however, withdrew from his position at least for the moment, but Prime Minister Rama’s intervention, who said that the Parliament had to have its own TV, without dozens of cameras around, shows that this decision doesn’t come from just the RTSH director.

Having a public station broadcasting Parliamentary work is a known experience in the USA, Britain, Italy and Greece. However, many groups see this move with concern, as an effort to limit the constitutional right to information, from the creation of ERTV to RTSH Parliament.

Top Channel