Albania

[AL] Discussion on the editorial Independence of the Public Service Radio-Television

IRIS 2002-1:1/11

Hamdi Jupe

Albanian Media Monitoring Center

The Parliament of the Republic of Albania has demanded an effective transformation of the Albanian State Radio-Television into a public service unit, granting it editorial independence through financial independence. In a letter addressed to the Albanian government in mid-December 2001, Parliament demanded the amendment of Law No 8435 dated 28 December 1998 "on the tax system in the Republic of Albania".

Based on this amendment to the law on taxes, the Albanian Radio-Television would benefit directly from the taxes paid by citizens for radio and television sets. This income of about EUR 2,4 million per year, actually makes up 60% of the stations' yearly budget. The Albanian State Radio-television has been changed into a public service broadcaster since the approval of the Law No. 8410 "for the public and private radios and televisions in the Republic of Albania" of 30 January 1998. But the tax law hindered a direct handing-over of these taxes to the public service stations as this amount was added to the Government's general budget. In practice, this put Albanian public service stations under the Government's control by financing their activities according to its interests.


References

  • Law No 8435 "on the tax system in the Republic of Albania" of 28 December 1998
  • Law No 8435 "on the tax system in the Republic of Albania" of 28 December 1998

  • Law No. 8410 "for the public and private radios and televisions in the Republic of Albania" of 30 January 1998
  • Law No. 8410 "for the public and private radios and televisions in the Republic of Albania" of 30 January 1998

This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.