“Transparency for media advertisements”

The media promotion and its position under the pressure of politics and business was discussed in a meeting with media representatives, members of the media commissin, Mps and representatives of the civil society.

“Media transparency and the economic influence on the media help identifying the political and commercial tendencies of the media. If the media profit indirectly or directly from the public funds, the government must treat them with justice and neutrality”, declared Marko Leidekker, Chairman of the Council of Ministers mission.

The report of the media institution underlines that the government spends 17 million EUR for advertisements, and 60% of them go to TV stations. This was the figure that was reported last year by the former opposition and that according to the documents had been distributed only to the media close to the government.

The OSCE Ambassador, Florian Rauning, declared that journalists cannot continue with their profession freely if there is biased treatment among the media.

“Journalists should be independent. The practice of non-transparent advertisements goes gainst this rule. The media should serve as an independent monitoring of the government. The journalists cannot work in favor of the public’s interest if the clientelist practice continues. Only a financially stable media can resist to subjects coming from different subjects of the society”, Rauning declared.

The Minister of Innovation, Milena Harito, underlined that the law allows only 30% of the media revenues to be guaranteed from advertisements, while the Audiovisual Media Authority has the duty to inspect its implementation. “As for the government spending, those are now transparent”, Harito declared.

The media expert, Lutfi Dervishi, asked for a regulation of balances initially with the public media.

“The politics, the Media Parliamentary Commission and MPs should select people with integrity at the AMA, the Public Television Board of Directors, whose mandate has ended two years ago. A public media, distanced from politics, would serve as a chain reaction for the other media. The media should be an independent monitoring of the government, as Ambassador Rauning said”, Dervishi declared.

The scandal of biased advertisements that exploded two years ago showed once again that most of the media in Albania have eben discriminated and had no access to public payments.

Top Channel