Slander and offence
08/02/2012 00:00
Linda Rama: Between Family, Work and Albania’s Future 18/08 14:30
The Majority, the Opposition and civil society memebrs agreed to work
with the reforms of the Civil and Penal codes, in order to review some
articles related with slander and offence, accusations that recently
have had consequences for journalists.
By initiative of Prime Minister Berisha, it was proposed since 2007 the removal of the article that provides fines and even imprisonment against slander and public offence. This law needs qualified majority in Parliament to pass, a consensus with the opposition, which has already accepted to review the qualified majority laws. The first discussion session for these amends was one of the most impressive ones for its expertise and the time it took.
But there were two doctrines facing each other in the Commission. That of the opposition, which says that not every slander and offence should be removed from the Penal Code, and that of the ruling party, which states that every kind of slander and offence should be treated by the Civil Code, rather than the Penal One, even if it comes from politicians, journalists or citizens.
“We cannot remove from the Penal Code offences that are based on racist motives. We are ready to review the laws, but there is a misunderstanding if we consider slander and offence as something related to the politicians, the media and not with everyone”, declared the Socialist MP, Vasilika Hysi.
The other Socialist MP, Fatmir Xhafaj, also declared that they agree to change the imprisonment sentences from the Penal Code to fines, by assigning an acceptable maximal payment that could be plausible in the conditions of Albanians.
The Chairman of the Commission of Laws, Ilir Rusmali, declared that they should remove every contact of the Penal Code with these matters.
“Media and freedom should be liberated from the penal chains, and people should resolve these kind of conflicts through the Civil Code. We have reached a point in which we must ask ourselves if we want the 19th century model, or that of the 21st. We must dare for more, at least as Commission of Laws”, Rusmali declared.
The civil society experts left it up to the Commission of Laws which version they would chose, but they noted that the Albanian and the Greek legislation are the most backwarded in the region, while most recent slander and offence cases in Albania have been treated mostly like civil cases.
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