Digital media challenge

During an interview for Top Channel, Mr.Mijatovic declared that a reform of the public television is necessary.

“For the moment I see it as a great challenge for the new government, and also for the Albanian society, the transition to digital broadcast. This is an important issue not only for Albania, but also for the region and the entire world. There are other issues that I have noticed regarding the media,s uch as the public television reform, which hasn’t started yet. Albania neds to take important decisions regarding this reform. A special importance has the independence that the media regulatory institutions must enjoy. Regarding this issue there are questions about which I have spoken with the last government”, Mijatovic declared.

By not hiding her concern regarding the Media Regulation Authority in Albania, Mrs.Mijatovic says that this institution must speak the language of the law, it must employ experts, and not people that are controlled by politics.

“The media regulation authorities should be built based on some standards. I’m not saying that there is a given format that can be copied and that can be functional for every country. There are a series of recommendations and conventions planned by the European Union, which should be taken in consideration when it comes for building the regulatory authorities. But the first thing that comes to my mind is the independence of these institutions. When I say independence, I don’t mean independence outside of the system, or an organism not related to the state. The regulatory institution should take decisions based on the law. The members of these institutions should be experts from the civil society. I would never advise a government to use given examples, but it is worthy to see the models of regulatory institutions that are successful so far. If the model that you have now is not functional, then change it. The regulatory agency in Albania should be made of experts that have knowledge on licensing legal experts, engineers, etc. These people cannot be puppets of politics, appointed for other reasons”, Mijatovic declared.

Top Channel