Albania

[AL] Law on Public and Private Radio and Television

IRIS 1999-2:1/16

Claudia M. Burri

Institute of European Media Law (EMR), Saarbrücken/Brussels

The Albanian People's Assembly passed this law on public and private radio and television on 30 September 1998.

The law regulates in 150 articles the activities of public and private broadcasting, defined in the general provisions (Chapter 1) as the organisation, transmission and retransmission of programmes and information of all kinds in speech, images, coded signals or text using electromagnetic waves via cables, amplifiers or satellites, and intended for public use (Art. 2).

In Art. 4 the basic principles underlying broadcasting are set out: primarily, respect for the dignity and personality of individuals and for religious and political convictions. Chapter 2 (Art. 6 to 17) deals with the National Council of Radio and Television (NCRT), its composition, responsibilities, election and financing. Chapter 3 (Art. 18) is devoted to a body of the National Council for Radio and Television, the Complaint Council, which oversees compliance with programming principles regarding the representation of violence and pornography.

The issue of broadcasting licences is dealt with in Chapter 4 (Art. 19 to 34). Chapter 5 (Art. 35 to 48) covers regulations pertaining to programme content on radio and television, particularly with regard to inadmissible programmes (Art. 38), newscasts (Art. 41) and films (Art. 43) and the rights and duties of the broadcaster. In this respect, particular rights and duties are laid down regarding the recording and storage of programmes (Art. 42), together with the duty of confidentiality (Art. 44), responsibility for programme content (Art. 45) and the right of reply (Art. 47).

Regulations on advertising are to be found in Chapter 6 (Art. 49 to 58), in particular on length (Art. 53) and banned advertising (Art. 55). Sponsoring and sponsoring bans are covered in Chapter 7 (Art. 59 to 63).

Chapter 8 (Art. 64 to 120) deals with the public service station Albanian Radio-Television (ART), object and purpose (Art. 66), bodies (Art.86 to 114) and finance (Art. 115). ART programme requirements appear in Art. 67, and rights and duties (Art. 77), particularly with regard to the coverage of events of special public importance.

Chapter 9 (Art. 122 to 127) governs the transmission of programmes on cable networks starting with the licence issue procedure (Art. 124), the use of cable facilities (Art. 125) and rules on capacity allocation (Art. 126). Chapter 10 (Art. 128 to 135) deals with the issue of licences for the installation and use of amplifiers, Chapter 11 (Art. 136) with broadcasting over satellite channels. Chapter 12 (Art. 136 to 150) - fines and termination provisions - establishes that Law No. 7524 on the status of RTSH and Law No. 8221 on public and private radio and television are superseded by this law.